progeny

noun

prog·​e·​ny ˈprä-jə-nē 

plural progenies

1

a

: descendants, children

b

: offspring of animals or plants

2

: outcome, product

3

: a body of followers, disciples, or successors

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The Lineage of Progeny

Progeny is the progeny of the Latin verb prōgignere, meaning "to beget." That Latin word is itself an offspring of the prefix pro-, meaning "forth," and gignere, which can mean "to beget" or "to bring forth." Gignere has produced a large family of English descendants, including benign (meaning "mild" or "harmless"), congenital (meaning "inherent"), engine, genius, germ, indigenous, ingenuous, and malign. Gignere even paired up with pro- again to produce a close relative of progeny: the noun progenitor can mean "an ancestor in the direct line," "a biologically ancestral form," or "a precursor or originator."

Synonyms

• fruit
• get
• issue
• offspring
• posterity
• seed
• spawn

Examples of progeny in a Sentence

Many Americans are the progeny of immigrants.

The small plants are the progeny of an oak tree.

Their work is the progeny of many earlier studies.

Recent Examples on the Web

He was succeeded by Rin-Tin-Tin Jr., the dog's actual progeny who starred in 14 films in the 1930s, mainly Westerns. —Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 18 Sep. 2024

The custom-residential markets of Washington, D.C., Delaware, and Virginia each share in the distinction of being mostly concerned with country- and suburban-specific renovation and restoration, specifically of Colonial and Colonial Revival prototypes and their progeny. —Richard Olsen, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024

But cyanobacteria have an evolutionary incentive to pass on relevant information to their progeny: Each cell divides into two identical clones, and each of those does as well, ad infinitum. —Elizabeth Landau, quantamagazine.org, 11 Oct. 2024

The European Union, the principal liberal institutional progeny of the U.S. victory in the Cold War, has suffered the loss of the United Kingdom, and other member states flaunt its rules, as Poland has done regarding its standards on the independence of the judiciary. —Barry R. Posen, Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2018

Word History

Etymology

Middle English progenie, borrowed from Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin prōgeniēs, from prōgen-, variant stem of prōgignere "to produce as offspring, bring into being" + -iēs, deverbal and denominal noun suffix — more at progenitor

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

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Kids Definition

progeny

noun

prog·​e·​ny ˈpräj-(ə-)-nē 

plural progenies

1

: human descendants : children

2

: offspring of animals or plants

Medical Definition

progeny

noun

prog·​e·​ny ˈpräj-(ə-)nē 

plural progenies

: offspring of animals or plants