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Subject: Re: [ENG-SOM] base child vs. illegitimate child
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 17:33:47 EST
Although all sorts of terms are used to indicate illegitimacy, the word
"bastard" is not used anything like so often as its various synonyms. The word,
which is of doubtful etymology, is more properly applied to the "by-blows" of
the great than to the produce of proletarian promiscuity. The earliest known
application of the term is to William the Conqueror, who styled himself, "Ego
Wilhelmus Cognomine Bastardus."
Regards Stan Mapstone
www.mapstone.org
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