bastard

Forms

bastard m (plural bastarzi)^[1] The earliest form is batard, from French;^[2] bastard itself is recorded from 1827, and an old variant bastart also occurs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian bastardo.^{[4][2][5][6][1]} DELR adds that it may also have come through Modern Greek μπαστάρδος (bastárdos), and MDN names German Bastard beside the Italian.^[2][7] The early variant batard is from French bâtard.^[2] Ciorănescu dates the word to the 19th century.^[4]

The Italian word comes from Old French bastard, recorded in Italian before 1306 and as Medieval Latin bastardus in the 1280s.^[2][8][9] The Old French word ends in the depreciative suffix -ard, but the origin of its base is disputed.^[2] The FEW and the TLF derive it from Proto-Germanic *banstu (“marriage”), the sense “concubinage” arising when Germanic custom met Christian monogamy;^[2] Nocentini follows the same view.^[2][9] Diez took it from bast (“packsaddle”), the saddle serving as a makeshift bed;^[2][10] Sperber proposed a Germanic *bansti- (“barn”), and Schuchardt a pre-Roman base meaning “shoot”.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1795, is the variant batard in a text of Gherasim;^[2] bastard appears in 1827, in a translated universal history.^[2] Tiktin gives an example from Molnar's history of 1800.^[3] In these records it meant a child born outside marriage.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside the child born outside marriage, the word was applied by analogy to a plant or animal born of two different species, a hybrid: Catârul e un bastard “the mule is a hybrid”.^[11][5] Figuratively it meant degenerate, having lost the qualities of its kind: rasă bastardă.^[12][13] As an adjective it also names a style of handwriting between round hand and cursive, a sense taken from French bâtard and also written batard.^[5][2][12] Hasdeu wrote in 1875 of „numeroșii bastarzi domnești” “the numerous princely bastards”.^[11][6]

Timeline

• 1795 – batard in a text of Gherasim, the first record.^[2]
• 1800 – in Molnar's history.^[3]
• 1827 – the form bastard.^[2]
• 1840 – the verb bastarda “to corrupt by mixing; to hybridize”.^[2]
• 1875 – bastarzi domnești in Hasdeu's Istoria critică.^[6][11]
• 1900 – batard “a style of handwriting” in Caragiale.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bastard: a child born outside marriage, an illegitimate child.^[5][6]
2. A plant or animal born of two different species; a hybrid, a corcitură.^[5][6]

Adjective

1. Born outside marriage;^[12][14] (figurative) degenerate, impure: rasă bastardă “a mongrel breed”.^[12][14]
2. Of handwriting: batard, between round hand and cursive: scriere bastardă.^[5]

Word family

• bastarda

Related words

• batard
• Italian bastardo

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 q r s Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. bastard
3. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bastard
4. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. bastard
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 91
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 168
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 68
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. bastard
12. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 153
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 57
14. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas