# What does \*born and bred\* mean to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058 "2007-12-15T01:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/1 "2007-12-15T01:07:52Z")
I hear the phrase “born and bred” sometimes. Lurleen was born and bred in Alabama, for example. I assumed it came from livestock breeding, and it’s a little jarring when I hear somebody say that a 12-year-old girl was born and bred in Pennsylvania. Either I misguessed the meaning, or that’s a mighty strange thing to say about a youngster. So, what does it mean to you? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/2 "2007-12-15T01:15:49Z")
I never really thought of any particular connection to livestock - I always took it to be a fairly universal term regarding a person’s place of origin. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/3 "2007-12-15T01:17:43Z")
I always took it to mean “born and raised in.” ---
**Author:** ![coffinjumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@coffinjumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffinjumper)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/4 "2007-12-15T01:22:56Z")
Bred also means “to develop by training or education” as well as what we normall associate it with. This is the definition meant in that phrase, though i can understand why it might give some cause to pause. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/5 "2007-12-15T02:08:21Z")
followed with “corn fed & hand-spanked!” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/6 "2007-12-15T02:17:17Z")
It means born, raised, and having a strong familial connection to the area through both parents to me. For instance, I was born and raised in eastern Tennessee and though my dad and his family are born and bred here, I don’t consider myself to be because my mother is from Brooklyn, New York. It’s an incredibly common phrase here. Doesn’t strike me as odd at all. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/7 "2007-12-15T02:48:11Z")
I agree with **Siam Sam** and **Aesiron** re definition. I certainly don’t find it offensive (don’t get me started on using MALE and FEMALE as nouns to refer to human beings instead of animals - now _that_ is offensive, but I digress). You could try the outback Australian town of Broken Hill, where there is actually a recognised system of referring to people as Class A, B, or C. If you were to go there, say on a business contract, and live for a little while, you’d be class C. After thirty years, you _might_ be bumped up to Class B, but you’d want to have bought property and raised kids there. If you’d been taken there as a two year-old, become wealthy and well-liked, never left the town, heck, even became Mayor, when you died at ninety, you’d still be a Class B - because you weren’t born there. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/8 "2007-12-15T03:11:27Z")
I always thought it was synononymous with _Heimat_, to a certain degree… but it is a far more innocent expression. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/9 "2007-12-15T03:19:08Z")
I thought it was “born” as in, well, _born_, and “bred”, as in that’s where one’s ancestors also lived. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/10 "2007-12-15T04:36:20Z")
[QUOTE=Savannah] I thought it was “born” as in, well, _born_, and “bred”, as in that’s where one’s ancestors also lived. [/QUOTE] Yup, that’s it. “Bred” implies that your family has been there long enough to put down roots. As a 4th generation New Englander (prior to that my ancestors on both sides of the family were still in various parts of Europe) I don’t mind being refered to as New England born and bred. It _doesn’t_ imply we should share characteristics with a broodmare or anything like that if that’s what’s giving you pause. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/11 "2007-12-15T12:12:03Z")
I’ve always thought it sort of referred to one’s upbringing or to one being accustomed to a particular lifestyle; He was born and bred to take over his father’s business or He was born and bred to be a sharecropper—that sort of think. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/12 "2007-12-15T12:19:28Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] I never really thought of any particular connection to livestock… [/QUOTE] Neither have I. But now that the OP mentions it, I’ll be thinking of barnyard animals from now on. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/13 "2007-12-15T13:20:38Z")
[QUOTE=Slithy Tove] followed with “corn fed & hand-spanked!” [/QUOTE] As opposed to “corn fed & machine-spanked!” of course. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/14 "2007-12-15T16:21:36Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] … It _doesn’t_ imply we should share characteristics with a broodmare or anything like that if that’s what’s giving you pause. [/QUOTE] I guess I was vague about what I thought it meant. I figured it meant that somebody still lived where they were born, and had already mated and produced offspring. That’s why I said it sounded twisted to say it about a child. Kinda odd to say about an adult, too, but lots of people grow up and have children in the town where they were born. Now that I’ve read these posts, I’m getting a better handle on the meaning. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2007, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/15 "2007-12-15T16:25:14Z")
“Born and bred” refers to the subject’s breeding - noun, not breeding - verb. Your breeding, as in, “he was of good breeding”, meaning strong familial roots of respectable stock, not that he has reproduced yet. Hmm…y’know, I might just be digging in deeper here with the agricultural metaphors! ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/16 "2007-12-17T23:39:29Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB] I’ve always thought it sort of referred to one’s upbringing or to one being accustomed to a particular lifestyle; He was born and bred to take over his father’s business or He was born and bred to be a sharecropper—that sort of think. [/QUOTE] This is how I’ve always thought of it. Not just a location, but a lifestyle as well. So a southerner, born and bred, would indicate someone who was both born in the south and continued to be associated with a southern lifestyle/culture. ---
**Author:** ![Charger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@Charger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charger)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2007, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/17 "2007-12-17T23:59:51Z")
I have always wondered if “born and bred” meant that a person lived in an area long enough to have been impregnated in the same place they were conceived. I’m happier now hearing everyone else’s interpretations, but it is a weird saying. I have to wonder about the origin. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/18 "2007-12-18T17:03:14Z")
I’ve always thought of it as born and raised in, but also with the connotation that your family has been there awhile. A not uncommon saying where I’m from is “Tarheel born and Tarheel bred, and when I die, I’ll be Tarheel dead.” (Tarheel being a nickname for folks from North Carolina. Also the name of the University of NC’s sports teams. So NC State supporters don’t say it much.) ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2007, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-born-and-bred-mean-to-you/430058/19 "2007-12-18T18:33:49Z")
The “bred” part originally referred to a family’s “good breeding.” In other words, unlike most of the rest of us great unwashed, some people are the result of deliberate human breeding, in which families plan the matchs of their children to produce the finest offspring possible. The rest of us are just going around hooking up willy-nilly and accidentally populating the world with our spawn. But the Kennedys and Vanderbilts and Morgans and Rockerfellers assure the quality of their bloodlines through good breeding. There are two contexts in which the phrase can be used. The more archaic context is that one is “born and bred a Rothschild,” which is closer to the original meaing of the phrase. More frequently nowadays, the phrase is used in the context of location, as in , “he’s a Pennsylvanian, born and bred.” This use gives the phrase more of a metaphoric quality, as if the person’s bloodline springs from the earth itself. Or that’s how my grandfather explained it on a long drive from Denver to home when I was a kid. 'Course, grandpa was quite the bullshitter.