Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAST'ARD, n.¹ [Arm. bastard; Ir. basdard; Fr. bâtard; D. bastaard; G. bastart; It. and Sp. bastardo; W. bastarz; basu, to fall, whence base, and tarz, growth, issue, a sprout.]

A natural child; a child begotten and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate or spurious child. By the civil and canon laws, a bastard becomes a legitimate child, by the intermarriage of the parents, at any future time. But by the laws of this country, as by those of England, a child, to be legitimate, must at least be born after the lawful marriage. – Blackstone. Bastard eigné, or bastard elder, in law, is when a man has a bastard son, and afterwards marries the mother, and has a legitimate son, called mulier puisne, or younger. – Blackstone.