Talk:bastardise

Are you Bastardised?

I have no objection to the meaning of the noun bastard. We stopped using that word as a perjorative against people a while ago; (that would not even be understood here in Norway where 50% of children are born outside wedlock). I do object to an uncritical posting of a secondary meaning of corrupt, spoil for the verb bastardise.84.210.139.189 18:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

It isn't uncritical, It simply doesn't have an example of usage yet. The term might be used in the sense of: The inept director bastardised Shakespeare's language. It is an idiomatic usage. --EncycloPetey 18:16, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Make a bastard

How do you make a bastard? Either one is a bastard or one is not: one cannot become a bastard at a later date. To make my point clear, Bastard is defined as: 1. An illegitimate (unchangeable); 2. A mongrel (ditto). Admittedly one could become a bastard in one of the other senses eg: 3. A contemptible, [etc] (by changing one's attitude); 4. A man, a fellow, a male friend (by changing one's gender); and 5. A child that does not know his father (by losing one's memory). However if these are meant then we need something like: make a bastard (senses 3, 4 and 5). Or does the definition mean produce a bastard i.e. by procreation? Confused... Jubileeclipman 11:04, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I see your point and have emended bastardize. For each literal, concrete bastard, its making is a one-time thing. Were that the meaning of bastardise, bastardisation would be defined as "conception out of wedlock", which is not its definition in any dictionary I've seen. It works with the figurative senses and in the sense of converting someone believed to be a legitimate child to a bastard by accusing(!) the mother of having had the child by a man not her husband or providing evidence for the truth of the charge. This latter sense seems not so important nowadays. DCDuring TALK 12:26, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Link to alt spelling

Should there be link to bastardize? (And vice versa?) Jubileeclipman 11:04, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

• Yes - it is just an alternative spelling. Done. SemperBlotto 11:39, 18 December 2008 (UTC)