bastard

[ bas-terd ]

See synonyms for bastard on Thesaurus.com

noun

a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate child.
Slang.
- a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person: Some bastard slashed the tires on my car.
- a person, especially a man: The poor bastard broke his leg.

something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual.
bastard culverin.

adjective

illegitimate in birth.
spurious; not genuine; false: The architecture was bastard Gothic.

of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions: bastard quartz; bastard mahogany.
having the appearance of; resembling in some degree: a bastard Michelangelo; bastard emeralds.
Printing. (of a character) not of the font in which it is used or found.

Origin of bastard

1250–1300; Middle English <Anglo-French bastard,Medieval Latin bastardus (from 11th century), perhaps <Germanic (Ingvaeonic) *bāst-, presumed variant of *bōst- marriage + Old French -ard-ard, taken as signifying the offspring of a polygynous marriage to a woman of lower status, a pagan tradition not sanctioned by the church; compare Old Frisian bost marriage <Germanic *bandstu-, a noun derivative of Indo-European *bhendh-bind; the traditional explanation of Old French bastard as derivative of fils de bast “child of a packsaddle” is doubtful on chronological and geographical grounds

Other words for bastard

6	fake, imitation, imperfect, sham, irregular, phony

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Words Nearby bastard

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

British Dictionary definitions for bastard

bastard

/ (ˈbɑːstəd, ˈbæs-) /

noun

informal, offensive an obnoxious or despicable person
informal, often jocular a person, esp a man: lucky bastard

informal something extremely difficult or unpleasant: that job is a real bastard
old-fashioned, or offensive a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate baby, child, or adult
something irregular, abnormal, or inferior
a hybrid, esp an accidental or inferior one

adjective(prenominal)

old-fashioned, or offensive illegitimate by birth
irregular, abnormal, or inferior in shape, size, or appearance

resembling a specified thing, but not actually being such: a bastard cedar
counterfeit; spurious

Origin of bastard

C13: from Old French bastart, perhaps from bast in the phrase fils de bast son of the packsaddle (that is, of an unlawful and not the marriage bed), from Medieval Latin bastum packsaddle, of uncertain origin

Derived forms of bastard

bastardly, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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