Word
bastardly
Phoneticsbas·tard·ly
/ˈbæstɚdli/
Definition
adj. cruel, mean, or unfair in the way you treat others. This word is old-fashioned and rare in modern English.
adj. cruel, mean, or contemptible in character or behaviour. Rare in contemporary usage; largely supplanted by 'bastard' as noun modifier.
Examples
“That was a bastardly trick to play on her.”
“The old landlord had a bastardly reputation for evicting tenants over minor delays in rent.”
“In the novel's opening chapters, the protagonist endures a bastardly apprenticeship under a master who delights in humiliation.”
Examples
simple
“That was a bastardly trick to play on her.”
contextual
“The old landlord had a bastardly reputation for evicting tenants over minor delays in rent.”
complex
“In the novel's opening chapters, the protagonist endures a bastardly apprenticeship under a master who delights in humiliation.”
Etymology
From bastard + -ly. The suffix descends from Old English -līċ, itself from Proto-West Germanic -līk, Proto-Germanic -līkaz, and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root leyg-der meaning "body" or "form" — the same ancestor that gives English like, likeness, and the adverbial -ly in words such as slowly and kindly. The compound bastardly simply joins the noun with this productive adverb-forming suffix.
From bastard + -ly, with the suffix descending from Middle English -ly, Old English -līċe, and Proto-West Germanic *-līkē.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Idioms
bastardly gullion — A bastard's bastard.