Etymologically
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bastardo

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Pronunciation

  • /basˈtar.do/[1]

Forms

bastardo (feminine bastarda, masculine plural bastardi, feminine plural bastarde)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French bastard, a word whose further origin is disputed.[2][3][4][5] Medieval Latin bastardus is found in Italy a little before the Italian word, in Salimbene (1281–1288) and in a document of 1290.[2] According to DEI the French word spread with Carolingian culture from northern France over the whole of western Romance, first as a legal term for the son of a prince by a concubine, with nothing insulting about it, and then a second time, again from France, with its pejorative sense.[5] The LEI notes that the Medieval Latin word is recorded in France about 1060 as the byname of William the Conqueror, and already about 1010 in a Catalan document, when Catalonia lay inside the Frankish Spanish March, so that the word must have arisen within Frankish culture.[6] From French it reached Spanish bastardo, German Bastard and English bastard;[3] the modern form is bâtard.[5]

The ending is the suffix -ardo, of Germanic origin, from the name element Proto-Germanic *harðu- (“bold”), which is common in Frankish personal names and usually pejorative in Romance.[6][2][7] The base is less clear.[6] Nocentini follows Wolf in deriving it from Frankish *bast (“morganatic marriage”), from a Germanic Proto-Germanic *banstu: the word named a union with a woman of lower rank that old Germanic law tolerated beside official marriage, and Christian morality made both the union and its children illegitimate.[3] The Battaglia dictionary instead connects it with a Germanic word for a farm or barn, compare Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐍃𐍄𐍃 (bansts, “barn”).[8] The old explanation from basto (“packsaddle”), through the French phrase Old French fils de bast “son of the packsaddle” (a child begotten on the packsaddle by muleteers and servant girls), is thought by DELI to be perhaps a joking comment on the noun and by DEI a folk etymology.[2][5][9] J. Knobloch proposed a remote Iranian origin.[2]

The modern use as a general insult reflects English bastard, and DELI dates it to 1961–1962, in translations from English.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is an anonymous Florentine poem of about 1269, where the word describes an illegitimate child, born outside marriage.[10][11] DELI's first records are in Iacopone da Todi, who died in 1306, and in Arrighetto (1304–1313).[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word as an insult and, figuratively, for an unworthy or corrupt person or thing.[10] Dante calls the degenerate people of Romagna bastards: O Romagnuoli, tornati in bastardi! (“O men of Romagna, turned into bastards!”).[12][2] About 1350 the Italian translation of Crescenzi's treatise on agriculture applies it to animals and plants born of a cross between two breeds.[2][9]

Old technical uses name things that differ from the normal size or form: the bastardo was the largest lateen sail of a galley, a bastarda a kind of galley, and modern Italian still has the lima bastarda, a file of medium cut, and the scrittura bastarda, a French cursive hand.[9][11][13] A bastardella is a deep pot for cooking meat (1729).[2][3] In some dialects the word took on, independently, the neutral sense “boy”: Ticinese bastard, Romagnol bastèrd.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1269 – An anonymous Florentine poem has the first Italian record.[10]
  • 1281–1288 – Salimbene uses Medieval Latin bastardus.[2]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses bastardo.[2]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses the word figuratively, for what has degenerated.[2]
  • c. 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses it for crossbred animals and plants.[2]
  • 1729 – Bastardella, a cooking pot, is recorded in the fourth Crusca dictionary.[2]
  • 1961–1962 – The word spreads as a general insult in translations from English.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (derogatory) Born of parents who are not married to each other; illegitimate: Era il figlio bastardo di un nobile veneziano.[4][11][14]
  2. Of an animal or plant, born of a cross between different breeds or varieties; of a dog, not pedigreed: Abbiamo adottato un cagnolino bastardo al canile.[4][15][13]
  3. (figurative) Not pure, mixed, corrupt: Parlava un francese bastardo, pieno di parole italiane.[4][11][16]
  4. (colloquial) Very bad, nasty: Abbiamo avuto un inverno bastardo.[15][14][11]
  5. Of a tool or device, differing from the usual form or size, as in lima bastarda, a file of medium cut.[4][15][11]

Noun

  1. (derogatory) An illegitimate child, a bastard.[4][11][13]
  2. (vulgar) A general term of abuse for a nasty or treacherous person: Quel bastardo mi ha rubato il posto.[4][14][13]
  3. A crossbred animal, especially a mongrel dog.[4][11][13]

Word family

  • bastardella
  • bastardume
  • bastardello
  • imbastardire
  • bastardino
  • bastardamente

Usage notes

Sabatini–Coletti marks the sense “born outside marriage” as vulgar.[14] In a tonnara, a tuna trap, the bastardo is the chamber next to the camera della morte, the chamber where the fish are killed.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 454
  6. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 521
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 96
  9. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  10. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli