bastard

American  

[bas-terd] / ˈbæs tərd /

noun

1. a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate child.

2. Slang.

   1. a vicious, despicable, or thoroughly disliked person.

      Some bastard slashed the tires on my car.

   2. a person, especially a man.

      The poor bastard broke his leg.

3. something irregular, inferior, spurious, or unusual.

4. bastard culverin.

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adjective

1. illegitimate in birth.

2. spurious; not genuine; false.

   The architecture was bastard Gothic.

   Synonyms:

   phony, irregular, sham, imperfect, imitation, fake

3. of abnormal or irregular shape or size; of unusual make or proportions.

   bastard quartz; bastard mahogany.

4. having the appearance of; resembling in some degree.

   a bastard Michelangelo; bastard emeralds.

5. Printing. (of a character) not of the font in which it is used or found.

bastard British  

/ ˈbæs-, ˈbɑːstəd /

noun

1. informal an obnoxious or despicable person

2. informal a person, esp a man

   lucky bastard

3. informal something extremely difficult or unpleasant

   that job is a real bastard

4. old-fashioned a person born of unmarried parents; an illegitimate baby, child, or adult

5. something irregular, abnormal, or inferior

6. a hybrid, esp an accidental or inferior one

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adjective

1. old-fashioned illegitimate by birth

2. irregular, abnormal, or inferior in shape, size, or appearance

3. resembling a specified thing, but not actually being such

   a bastard cedar

4. counterfeit; spurious

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bastardly
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of bastard

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Anglo-French bastard, from Medieval Latin bastardus, perhaps ultimately from Germanic bāst-, bōst- (unrecorded) “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,” see also 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

Explanation

Bastard used to be a not nice thing you called a child whose parents weren't married. But now it's a more general insult hurled toward a jerk or bad person. Bastard can also simply mean "fraudulent." This is a great example of how words change in meaning over time. Today, if you were called a bastard, it probably has nothing to do with whether or not your parents are married: it just means someone doesn't like you (unless they call you a magnificent bastard, which is a compliment). Bastard can also mean phony or fake, like a bastard version of French that is not correct. When you think bastard, think illegitimate.

Example Sentences

But consider where The RZA and his late cousin, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, along with other members, were first exposed to these flicks.

From Salon • May 31, 2026

On Sept. 30, 1955, Dean — described by The Times as “one of Hollywood’s brightest new motion-picture stars” — sped through rural Kern County in a silver Porsche 550 Spyder nicknamed Little Bastard.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 2, 2024

Yet “as the weeks passed, the mood became one of despair,” writes Anna Whitlock, author of Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen.

From National Geographic • Sep. 11, 2023

It was there that I was put on trial for writing “The Bastard of Istanbul,” a novel that reflected on minorities, memory and collective amnesia, and that unspeakable taboo, the Armenian genocide.

From New York Times • Oct. 26, 2022

In 1891 he announced the premiere of his new opera, Tristan’s Bastard, poking fun at Wagner.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall