bastard child
Child without wedlock
A bastard child is one born to parents who aren't married to each other—the older term for what's now usually called a child born out of wedlock.
The phrase carries the full stigma of *bastard*, marking the child as illegitimate in both legal and social senses.
Once common in legal documents and everyday speech, it now sounds harsh and antiquated: In the 18th century, a bastard child could not inherit property.
- illegitimacyLacking lawful authority
- secretConcealed information
- family secretHidden domestic truth
- shamePainful awareness of failure
- inheritanceProperty received from ancestors
archaic terms · stigma · adoption · lineage · family tree · reclamation · discrimination · paternity · birth certificate · ostracism · social outcast · family law · born out of wedlock · euphemisms · kinship · custody · gossip · taunt
bastard childlegitimate child
Offspring of a marriage
legitimate heir · rightful heir · firstborn son · crown prince · heir apparent
bastard, child, bastards, bastardy, bastardize, bastardized, bastardization, children, childish