Category:Bastard

Bas"tard, n. Etym: [OF. bastard, bastart, F. b, prob. fr. OF. bast, F. b, a packsaddle used as a bed by the muleteers (fr. LL. bastum) + -ard. OF. fils de bast son of the packsaddle; as the muleteers were accustomed to use their saddles for beds in the inns. See Cervantes, "Don Quixote," chap. 16; and cf.G. bankert, fr. bank bench.]

1. A "natural" child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child; one born of an illicit union.

Note: By the civil and canon laws, and by the laws of many of the United States, a bastard becomes a legitimate child by the intermarriage of the parents at any subsequent time. But by those of England, and of some states of the United States, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage. Kent. Blackstone.

2. (Sugar Refining) (a) An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from the sirups that (b) A large size of mold, in which sugar is drained.

3. A sweet Spanish wine like muscadel in flavor. Brown bastard is your only drink. Shak.

4. A writing paper of a particular size. See Paper.

Bas"tard, a.

1. Begotten and born out of lawful matrimony; illegitimate. See Bastard, n., note.

2. Lacking in genuineness; spurious; false; adulterate; -- applied to things which resemble those which are genuine, but are really not so. That bastard self-love which is so vicious in itself, and productive of so many vices. Barrow.

3. Of an unusual make or proportion; as, a bastard musket; a bastard culverin. [Obs.]

4. (Print.)

Defn: Abbreviated, as the half title in a page preceding the full title page of a book. Bastard ashlar (Arch.), stones for ashlar work, roughly squared at the quarry.

-- Bastard file, a file intermediate between the coarsest and the second cut.

-- Bastard type (Print.), type having the face of a larger or a smaller size than the body; e.g., a nonpareil face on a brevier body.

-- Bastard wing (Zoöl.), three to five quill feathers on a small joint corresponding to the thumb in some mam malia; the alula.

Bas"tard, v. t.

Defn: To bastardize. [Obs.] Bacon.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Bastard - In the Old Testament the rendering of the Hebrew word mamzer', which means "polluted." In Deuteronomy 23:2, it occurs in the ordinary sense of illegitimate offspring. In Zechariah 9:6, the word is used in the sense of foreigner. From the history of Jephthah we learn that there were bastard offspring among the Jews (Judges 11:1). In Hebrews 12:8, the word (Gr. nothoi ) is used in its ordinary sense, and denotes those who do not share the privileges of God's children.