m. bastard, appears for the first time as the cognom. of William the Conqueror. The etymon is dubious; Grimm suggests a Scandinavian origin; but this is very doubtful; the word never occurs in Scandinavian writers before the time of William, sounds very like a foreign word, is rarely used, and hardly understood by common people in Icel.; neither does it occur in A. S. nor O. H. G.; so that Adam of Bremen says, iste Willelmus quem Franci bastardum vocant; whence the word seems to come from some southern source; cp. the Játv. S. (Ed. 1852), and Fl. iii. 463 sqq.; the MS. Holm, spells bastarðr, the Fb. basthardr.

2. name of a sword, Fms. vii. 297, referring to A. D. 1163.

3. a kind of cloth, in deeds of the 14th and 15th centuries, Vm. 46, 136, D. N. ii. 165; cp. the remarks on bæsingr, p. 92, col. 1 at bottom.