bastard title
- noun
- Specialized
:
título bastard
- Only the bastard title appeared on the first page; the author's name followed later.
Examples
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The book's bastard title was printed on a separate page.
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Collectors value books with the original bastard title pages intact.
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This edition features a classic bastard title before the main text begins.
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Many novels include a bastard title before the main title.
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This edition features a classic bastard title before the main text begins.
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Collectors value books with the original bastard title pages intact.
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Only the bastard title appeared on the first page; the author's name followed later.
Synonyms
The page near the front of a book that shows only the title
Surface Forms
Morphology
The adjective 'bastard' carries a sense of illegitimacy or non‑genuine status, so a learner who knows both words could infer this refers to a non‑main or unofficial kind of title. However, the specific bibliographic sense (a distinct preliminary page showing only the title before the main title page) is a technical usage unlikely to be fully deduced by a B1 learner, so the relation is partial rather than fully transparent.
Etymology
Bastard title may come from old book printing. Printers sometimes put a small extra title page before the main title page, and because it was not the 'official' title page people called it a bastard, meaning 'not genuine'. So bastard title now means the small page that shows only the title before the main title page.
