What was the classical era word for a bastard?

nothoi · Lit. “a bastard.” In the classical period, Athenian citizenship was confined to those born of citizen parents on both sides.

1. What did bastard mean in the olden days?
2. When was the earliest use of the word bastard?
3. When did bastard become offensive?
4. Where is the word bastard from?

What did bastard mean in the olden days?

"illegitimate child," early 13c., from Old French bastard "acknowledged child of a nobleman by a woman other than his wife" (11c., Modern French bâtard), probably from fils de bast "packsaddle son," meaning a child conceived on an improvised bed (saddles often doubled as beds while traveling), with pejorative ending - ...

When was the earliest use of the word bastard?

The first English bastard appeared in 1297, although you can be sure people were born out of wedlock before that.

When did bastard become offensive?

In fact, it was a relatively neutral term until as recently as the late 20th century, when it began to take on its offensive status. This shift coincided with a positive change in societal attitudes towards unmarried parents and a lessening of the social stigma of having children outside of marriage.

Where is the word bastard from?

That sense of what made a birth illegitimate, what made a child a 'bastard', matches the definition of nothus often found in early medieval sources. As one late-11th-century chronicler declared, the French called William 'bastard' because of his mixed parentage: he bore both noble and ignoble blood, 'obliquo sanguine'.