bloodstock

1 9.3

Thoroughbred horses kept for racing or breeding

noun
/ˈblʌdˌstɑk/

Jargon

: sangre pura

Selecting the right bloodstock is crucial for any aspiring thoroughbred breeder.

Examples

The owner invested heavily in high-quality bloodstock to ensure success on the racetrack.
At the bloodstock auction, bidders eagerly sought champion horses for breeding.
The swamp rat over the best bloodstock in America.

Fiction book (1991)
She was forever experimenting with feed formula and negotiating for new and better bloodstock.

Fiction book (1996)
A colt by War Front out of the Seeking the Gold mare Questress brought the sale's top price for a weanling, selling to John McCormack Bloodstock for $800,000.

Blog text (13)

Surface Forms

bloodstock singular

bloodstocks plural

Morphology

bloodstock = blood + stock (semi-transparent) = blood + stock

The components 'blood' and 'stock' are recognizable, but the specialized sense 'thoroughbred horses' is domain-specific and not fully predictable for a general learner.

Etymology

Bloodstock combines blood ('family' or 'good blood') and stock ('animals' or 'livestock'), so it originally named animals with strong family lines. That's why bloodstock today refers to valuable thoroughbred horses kept for racing or breeding.