Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
bastardism

bastardism

9.9
The state of being born to parents who are not married
  • noun
  • /ˈbæstərdɪzəm/
  • Offensive
translation icon : ilegitimidad
  • His feelings of insecurity stemmed from his experience of bastardism, having been born out of wedlock.

Examples

  • She often felt isolated because of her bastardism, as her parents were not married when she was born.

  • Many people in society still hold biases against children of bastardism, viewing them as less deserving of respect.

  • And lazy bastardism will certainly never stress that you need to love poetry's artificial and formal aspects.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Lazy bastardism kowtows to the convenience of see-Jane-run simple-mindedness because, by gosh, that's what most people want from their poetry.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Lazy bastardism is the only way to explain the existence of phrases like "the roaring juggernaut of time" or "the once gurgling fountain of creativity" (both plucked from Billy Collins's The Trouble with Poetry).

    Academic text (2010)

Synonyms

illegitimacy
vsbastardism
  • Formal
7 7.2

Being born to parents who are not married to each other

states the birth status without legal wording
bastardy
vsbastardism
  • NSFW
1 9.9

Being born to parents who are not married, often causing social or legal problems

focuses on the birth condition without legal or social emphasis
bastardry
vsbastardism
  • NSFW
9.9

The condition of being born to parents who are not married

is the same condition expressed as a different word form
bar sinister
vsbastardism
  • Archaic
9.9

Being born to parents who were not married

refers simply to the birth condition without framing it as a status

Surface Forms

bastardism singular
bastardisms plural

Morphology

bastardism = bastard (transparent) = bastard + ism

Formed by adding the noun-forming suffix '-ism' to 'bastard' to denote the state or condition of being a bastard; meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Bastardism comes from the older word bastard, which people once linked to bast ('pack-saddle') and the image of a child 'of the saddle' — a way to say the child was born outside marriage. So, bastardism means the state of being born to parents who are not married.