bastard
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɑːs.təd/
ipa: /ˈbæs.tæd/
ipa: /ˈbæs.tɚd/
rhymes: -ɑːstə(ɹ)d
rhymes: -æstə(ɹ)d
Forms: form: more bastard
form: most bastard
form: bastid
Etymology: From Middle English bastard, bastarde, from Old English bastard (used as an epithet), from Anglo-Norman bastard, Old French bastart (“illegitimate child”), perhaps via Medieval Latin bastardus, of obscure origin.
Possibly from Frankish *bāst (“marriage, relationship”) + Old French -ard, -art (pejorative suffix denoting a specific quality or condition). Frankish *bāst derives from a North Sea Germanic variety of Proto-Germanic *banstuz (“bond, connection, relationship, marriage with a second woman of lower status”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”) and is related to West Frisian boaste (“marriage, matrimony”), Middle Dutch bast (“lust, heat”), and more distantly to English boose (“cow-stall”). The term probably originally referred to a child from a polygynous marriage of heathen Germanic custom — a practice not sanctioned by the Christian churches.
Alternatively, Old French bastart may have originated from the Old French term fils de bast (“packsaddle son”), meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (medieval saddles often doubled as beds while travelling). However chronology makes this difficult, as bastard is attested in Old French from 1089 (Middle Latin bastardus as early as 1010), yet Old French bast (modern French bât), though attested since 1130 with the meaning of "beast of burden", doesn't acquire the specific meaning of "packsaddle" until the 13c., making it too late to have given rise to the terms bastard and bastardus with this sense. The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales supports the Germanic theory further above as being most likely.
Senses: glosses: Of or like a bastard (illegitimate human descendant).
glosses: Of or like a bastard (bad person).
glosses: Of or like a mongrel, bastardized creature/cross.
examples: text: a bastard musket
text: a bastard culverin
glosses: Of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc).
examples: text: that bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices
ref: a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). Of Self-conceit”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:
glosses: Of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc).
Spurious, lacking authenticity: counterfeit, fake.
examples: text: Of what race could these people be? Their language was a bastard Arabic, and yet they were not Arabs; I was quite sure of that.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
glosses: Of abnormal, irregular or otherwise inferior qualities (size, shape etc).
Imperfect; not spoken or written well or in the classical style; broken.
raw_tags: of a language
examples: text: bastard gemsbok; bastard mahogany; bastard toadflax; bastard trumpeter
glosses: Used in the vernacular name of a species to indicate that it is similar in some way to another species, often (but not always) one of another genus.
examples: text: I’ve got a bastard headache.
glosses: Very unpleasant.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book.
examples: text: A bastard orange gel produces predominantly orange light with undertones of blue.
qualifier: theater lighting
glosses: Consisting of one predominant color blended with small amounts of complementary color; used to replicate natural light because of their warmer appearance.