note on "bastard"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Of course Joel is right.

Edmund in King Lear, for example, is pissed off for just that reason. Maybe
his outrage has a genetic component, too.

JL

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 8:04 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: note on "bastard"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 5/10/2011 02:44 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
> >I vote for "inconsequential"--female bastards could not--or were not
> likely
> >to--inherit.
>
> Neither could male bastards, I believe.
>
> Joel
>
> >In most cases, they were not likely to be admitted either.
> >
> >VS-)
> >
> >On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 1:35 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> ><wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > We know that illegitimate children played villains in English
> literature
> > > for
> > > centuries - especially sons, perhaps because female bastardy was too
> > > horrible to think much about (or too inconsequential? Dunno.). ...
> >
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