Obs. Also 5 baste, baaste. [a. OF. bast (mod. bât = Pr. bast, med.L. bastum) pack-saddle (used as a bed by muleteers in the inns), in phr. fils (homme, etc.) de bast, lit. ‘pack-saddle child,’ as opposed to a child of the marriage-bed; thus forming a tersely allusive epithet for illegitimate offspring: cf. BASTARD, BANTLING.]
A. sb. Bastardy. (In phr.: on, in, a, o, of bast.)
1297. R. Glouc., 516. Gentil man was inou, thei he were a bast ibore.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7643. Bast Ywain he was y-hote, For he was bigeten o bast.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, III. xxvi. (1554), 97 b. Hys brethren in bast an hundred and fiftene.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 26. Baaste, not wedlocke, bastardia.
1494. Fabyan, VI. ccii. 212. Arnolde, Sone of bast of Lothayr.
B. adj. [the sb. used attrib.: bast son = son of bast, fils de bast.] Bastard, illegitimate.
c. 1330. [see prec.]
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. VII. 27. Þe erle his bast sone.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxix. 240. Willyam duke of Normandye … bast sone of Robert.
1572. Scholehouse Wom., 324, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 117. The childe I warrant shalbe bast.
