What does bastardy mean?
Bastardy is a noun denoting the condition of being born to parents who are not married to one another — what modern legal language calls illegitimacy or a nonmarital birth. Historically the word carried heavy weight: across medieval and early modern Europe, a child born outside marriage could face exclusion from inheritance, restricted rights to a family name, and lasting social stigma. In England, "the statutes of bastardy" referred to laws requiring parishes to maintain children born out of wedlock whose fathers could not be made responsible, and local records of "bastardy proceedings" survive in abundance from the sixteenth century onward. Today the term survives chiefly in historical writing and legal history; contemporary usage prefers neutral phrasing such as "born outside marriage." Because of its associations with stigma and its overlap with the pejorative sense of "bastard," the word should be used with care, though it remains essential vocabulary for anyone reading genealogical records, parish registers, or older legal documents.
The condition of being born to parents not married to each other; illegitimacy.
"In Tudor England, bastardy often barred a child from inheriting land."
Chiefly historical or legal in modern use.
Historically, the set of laws and proceedings governing the maintenance of children born out of wedlock.
"The overseers handled several cases of bastardy that winter."
Found mainly in archival and legal-history contexts.
For centuries English parishes kept registers specifically recording 'bastardy' — and under Elizabethan statutes, unwed mothers could be legally ordered to name the father so he could foot the bill.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bastardy
Bastardy derives from "bastard," a Middle English word adopted from Old French, which itself probably traces to the medieval Latin "bastardus," meaning a child of uncertain or irregular parentage. The ultimate origin may lie in the Germanic root behind "bâst," associated with a mule or pack-saddle, suggesting the idea of offspring born outside proper union. The noun "bastardy" formed in Middle English to denote the legal and social condition itself. Its cognates include the French "bâtard" and related forms across Romance languages.
Related word forms
How bastardy is actually used
"Bastardy" is now largely historical, legal, or formal; modern usage prefers "illegitimacy" or simply describes births as occurring outside marriage. The word carries strong connotations from eras when illegitimate birth entailed serious legal and social disadvantage.
Easily confused with bastardy
"Bastard" is the adjective/noun referring to a person born to unmarried parents (or an offensive term for an unpleasant person), while "bastardy" is the abstract noun denoting that condition or its legal treatment.
"Illegitimacy" is the standard modern legal term for the same concept, whereas "bastardy" is largely historical or archaic in formal usage.