PECKINGORDER

Pecking order

Pecking order or peck order is the colloquial term for a hierarchical system of social organization. It was first described by Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe in 1921 under the German terms Hackordnung or Hackliste and introduced into English in 1927.

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pecking order

Noun

  1. The usually informal hierarchy of authority or command, often partial or approximate, as determined by the especially natural propensity for domination of different members of a specific group over each other, such as older brothers and sisters over their younger siblings.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: pecking order
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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