Also 5–6 bastarde, (7 baster’d). [a. OF. bastard, mod. bâtard (= Pr. bastard, It., Sp., Pg. bastardo) = fils de bast, ‘pack-saddle child,’ f. bast (see BAST sb.2) + the pejorative suffix -ARD. Cf. BANTLING.]
A. sb.
1. One begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or natural child.
By the civil and canon laws, a child born out of wedlock is legitimated by the subsequent marriage of his parents; but by the law of England, retained in some of the United States, a child to be legitimate must at least be born after the marriage of the parents. Bastard eigne or elder: the bastard son of a man who afterwards marries the mother, and has a legitimate son; the latter is called in legal phrase mulier puisne or younger.
1297. R. Glouc., 295. Or þulke blode Wyllam bastard com.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VIII. 76. Bringeþ forþ Barnes þat Bastardes beon holden.
c. 1450. Merlin, vii. 112. Thei wolde neuer haue no bastarde to theire kynge.
1528. Perkins, Prof. Bk., i. § 49. A bastard eigne who is mulier in the spirituall law.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. iii. 100. Sure they are bastards to the English, the French nere got em.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 322. He confuted their Etymology who deduced Bastard from the Dutch words boes and art, that is an abject Nature, and verifyed their deduction deriving it from besteaerd, that is the best disposition.
1764. Burn, Just. Peace, s.v., The word bastard seemeth to have been brought unto us by the Saxons; and to be compounded of base, vile or ignoble, and start, or steort signifying a rise or original.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. viii. 210. Spiritual preferments … for cadets or bastards of the royal house.
2. fig.
1583. Fulke, Defence, iv. He pronounceth the Epistle of James … to be a bastard.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxiii. 215. Fame being a bastard or filia populi, ’tis very hard to find her father.
1785. Burke, Nab. Arcots’ Debts, Wks. IV. 319. Six great chopping bastards [Reports of Committee of Secrecy], each as lusty as an infant Hercules.
3. A mongrel, an animal of inferior breed. ? Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 191. The lesser sort of [elephants], which they call Bastards.
1602. Ret. fr. Parnass., II. v. 30. Small Ladies puppies, Caches and Bastards.
† 4. A sweet kind of Spanish wine, resembling muscadel in flavor; sometimes applied to any kind of sweetened wine. Obs. exc. Hist. (See B. 7.)
1399. [Rogers, Agric. & Prices (1866), I. xxv. 619. The fellows of Merton purchase … some bastard in 1399.]
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk., 125. The namys of swete wynes y wold þat ye them knewe … Bastard, Tyre, Oȝey, [etc.].
a. 1536. Tindale, Exp. Matt., Wks. II. 97. With basta[r]do, muscadell, and ipocrass.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. iv. 30. Anon, Anon sir, Score a Pint of Bastard in the Halfe Moone.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 642. Bastards … seeme to me to be so called, because they are oftentimes adulterated and falsified with honey.
1631. Heywood, Maid of West, III. Wks. 1874, II. 301. Ile furnish you with bastard white or brown.
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xiv. 85. He … called for a little mulled bastard.
† 5. A kind of cloth, ? of inferior or mixed quality, or unusual make or size. Obs.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., viii. § 18. Woollen Cloths called Bastards.
1523. Act 14–15 Hen. VIII., i. White brode wollen clothes with Crumpil listes, other wise called bastardes.
† 6. A kind of war-vessel, a variety of galley.
1506. Guylford, Pylgr., 7. An .c. galyes, grete bastardes and sotell.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 78. Gallies, as well bastards as subtill mahonnets.
† 7. A species of cannon, also called bastard culverin. Cf. BASTARD a. 6. Obs.
[1549. Compl. Scotl., vi. 41 (1872). Mak reddy ȝour cannons, culuerene moyens, culuerene bastardis, falcons, saikyrs.]
1670. Cotton, Espernon, I. IV. 149. Thirty brass Pieces, of which fourteen were Royal Culverines, or Bastards.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The long bastards … are either common or uncommon. To the common kind belong the double culverin extraordinary, etc.
8. A large sail used in the Mediterranean when there is little wind. (So F. bâtard.)
1753. in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Bastard, a fair-weather square sail … occasionally used for an awning.
9. A particular size of paper. ? Obs.
1712. Act 10 Anne in Lond. Gaz., No. 5018/3. Paper called … bastard or double Copy.
1774. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 374. The duties on … blue royal, or bastard, or fool’s-cap.
10. Sugar-refining. a. An impure coarse brown sugar, made from the refuse syrup of previous boilings. b. A large mold into which sugar is drained. (So F. bâtard.)
1859. in Worcester.
1864. in Webster.
11. Comb., as bastard-bearing, -bellied, -like.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 423. Whereby the warlike vertues … of their subjects become degenerate and bastardlike.
1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity, IV. iii. (1839), 40. Thy corrupted bastard-bearing womb!
1640. Brome, Sparag. Gard., IV. iv. 183. Though she prov’d bastard-bellyed, I will owne her.
B. adj. [At first not separable from the sb.: so in Fr.]
1. Born out of wedlock, illegitimate.
1297. R. Glouc., 412. He was Wyllammes sone bastard.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monkes T., 388. Thy bastard brother made the to fle.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. iv. 307. Ha? a Bastard Sonne of the Kings?
1729. Swift, Wks. (1841), II. 100. That horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xiv. (1862), 202. The marriage … void, and the issue counterfeit or bastard.
2. Mongrel, hybrid, of inferior breed. ? Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. lxxxiii. (1495), 834. The perde … gendreth wyth the lyennesse: of that bastarde generacion comith leoperdus.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 161. Their lesser Elephants (which they call bastard Elephants).
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, vii. 27. To beget and bring forth mules, a bastard brood.
3. fig. Illegitimate, unrecognized, unauthorized.
1558. Knox, First Blast (Arb.), 48. Who soeuer receiueth of a woman, office or authoritie, are adulterous and bastard officers before God.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 66. Usurie … is the Bastard use of Money.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 67. After speaking of prophetical enthusiasm, and establishing … a legitimate and a bastard-sort.
1843. Gladstone, Gleanings, V. i. 38. The bastard sense … strives to eject what he firmly holds to be legitimate.
b. Bastard branch or slip: a shoot or sucker springing of its own accord from the root of a tree, or where not wanted. Often fig. = BASTARD sb.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxxix. (1495), 720. Vitulamen is that bastarde plante other braunche … that spryngeth oute of the rote of the vyne or elles where in the vyne . and not out of the knottes.
c. 1525. More, Wks. (1557), 60/2. Bastard slippes shal reuer take depe roote.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 86. The Kingdome of Naples, beeing now in the possession of a Bastardslip of Arragon.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 409. From this root has sprung a bastard slip, known by the name of the game law.
1852. Tupper, Proverb. Philos., 293. Grey-headed men, the bastard slips of science, Go for light to glow-worms.
4. fig. Not genuine; counterfeit, spurious; debased, adulterated, corrupt.
1552. Huloet, Bastarde hande, letter, or wrytynge, Litera adulterina.
1635. Quarles, Emblems, II. v. (1718), 83. With thy bastard bullion thou hast barter’d for wares of price.
a. 1639. W. Whateley, Prototypes, I. xix. (1640), 194. Favourable dealing with a man … for a faire sister, or kinswomans sake, is a kinde of bastard curtesie.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 314. The Swisses speak a bastard French.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. iv. 36. That bastard, but picturesque style of architecture, called the Italian Gothic.
5. Having the appearance of, somewhat resembling; an inferior or less proper kind of; esp. in scientific nomenclature applied to things resembling, but not identical with, the species which legitimately bear the name. a. generally.
1530. Palsgr., 196/2. Bastarde floure, folle farine.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 99. Foure more [mouths of the Nile], which they themselues call bastard mouthes.
1670. H. Stubbe, Plus Ultra Reduced, 145. A florid red, but paler than blood … resembling a bastard-scarlet.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 106. Bastard Diamonds.
1844. H. Hutchinson, Pract. Drainage, 153. A portion of which is strong clay, and more of which is of the description requiring Bastard Draining.
b. esp. in Bot., often forming the specific name of a plant; see Bastard ALKANET, BALM, PIMPERNEL, SAFFRON, TOAD-FLAX, etc.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, 42. Of the false and Bastard Rewbarbes, there are at ye least foure or fiue kindes.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., III. xxii. 432. Sison, bastard Stone-parsley.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 130. A grove of bastard pine trees, called by Malays, Arrow.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 385. The beautiful spotted bastard-balm … spangling the hedge with its large white flowers.
c. in Zool., Phys., etc. Bastard-wing, a set of three or four quill-like feathers placed at a small joint in the middle of a bird’s wing, taken as the analogue of the thumb in mammals.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 46. The lower part of the ribs are commonly called the false ribbes, or bastard ribbes.
1678. Ray, Willughby’s Ornith., 307. The Lapwing or Bastard Plover.
1772. Forster, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 420. The Alula, or bastard wing, is black.
1799. G. Smith, Laborat., II. 298. Alder-fly, withy-fly, or bastard-caddis.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xiv. (1878), 397. The ‘bastard-wing’ may safely be considered as a rudimentary digit.
d. in Medicine.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., II. v. 79. I was surprised with a bastard Tertian ague.
1728. Nicholls, in Phil. Trans., XXXV. 442. Some Resemblance of the Aneurysm; for which Reason it is by some Chirurgeons term’d a Bastard-Aneurysm.
1881. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v., Bastard Measles, the Roseola epidemica.
e. in Geology and Mineralogy.
1695. Voy. Eng. Merch., in Misc. Cur. (1708), III. 127. Covered with an Arch of Bastard Marble.
1839. Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxxi. 415. A bastard limestone charged with encrinites.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 7. Bastard Whin, very hard post or sandstone, but not so flinty as to be called whin.
6. Of abnormal shape or irregular (esp. unusually large) size; spec. applied: † a. Mil. to swords, guns, etc.; † b. to ships (cf. A 6); c. to a file intermediate between the coarse and fine ‘cuts’; d. in Printing, to (a.) a fount of type cast on a smaller or larger body than that to which it usually belongs, (b.) an abbreviated or half-title on the page preceding the full title-page of a book.
a. 1418. E. E. Wills (1882), 30. I bequethe to Symond Wrenchin … my Bastard Swerd.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, IV. i. 95. The Bastard square, is the battell which conteineth almost twise so many men in front, as in flanke.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiv. 69. Bastard-muskets, Coliuers.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., The ordinary bastard culverin carries a ball of eight pounds.
b. 1667. Lond. Gaz., No. 220/2. The Bastard Gally that lies ready to sail. Ibid. (1693), No. 2878/2. One Bastard Galley on which the Doge is embarked.
c. 1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 15. The Bastard-tooth’d file is to take out of your work, the deep cuts … the Rough-file made; the Fine-tooth’d file is to take out the cuts … the Bastard-file made.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 32. Bastard Cut … a file between rough and smooth.
7. Applied as a specific epithet:
a. to wine (cf. A 4).
1436. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 160. Raysyns, wyne bastarde, and dates.
1598. Epulario, B. ij. Bastard wine, that is, wine sod with new wine, called Must.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Countr. Farm, 635. Mungrell or bastard vvines, vvhich … haue neither manifest sweetnesse nor manifest astriction.
b. to sugar (cf. A 10).
1863. Act 26 Vict., xxii. Sched. A, Bastard or Refined Sugar unstoved.
1877. Burroughs, Taxation, 551. Bastard sugar is the residuum … of clayed sugars.
