illegitimately
7.4
A child born to parents who are not legally married
- adverb
- /ˌɪlɪˈdʒɪtəmətli/
- Archaic
:
ilegítimamente
- After years of doubt, she learned that she was raised illegitimately, as her parents were never married.
Examples
-
He discovered he was born illegitimately and sought to learn more about his parents.
-
Let the illegitimately born individual.
Blog text (11) -
Rumor has it her father is Bunuel illegitimately.
-
Their discussion revealed that he had been born illegitimately, which changed how he viewed his family.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
illegitimately positive
Morphology
illegitimately = illegitimate (semi-transparent) = il + legitimate + ly
Morphologically regular, but the specific sense 'born out of wedlock' is a specialized, social/legal sense of 'legitimate' that may not be obvious to all learners.
Etymology
Illegitimately also had a family meaning long ago: the root legitimate meant 'born to married parents'. So illegitimately meant 'not legally recognized as a child', which is why it can still mean 'born out of marriage'.