Etymology Dictionary

BASTARD,  a child of parents not married; illegitimate, false.  (F.,—G.)   'Wyllam bastard,' i.e. William the Conqueror; Rob. of Glouc. p. 295.—O.F. bastard, bastart, of which the etymology has been much disputed.   [The remarks in Burguy shew that the word is to be divided as bast-ard, not as bas-tard; that the old guess of a deriv. from W. bas, base, and tardh, issue, is wrong; also, that the word is certainly not Celtic.]   B. The ending -ard is common in O.F. (and even in English, cf. cow-ard, drunk-ard, the E. suffix having been borrowed from French).   This suffix is certainly O.H.G., viz. the O.H.G. -hart, hard, first used as a suffix in proper names, such as Regin-hart (whence E. Reynard), Eber-hart (whence E. Everard).   In French words this suffix assumed first an intensive, and secondly, a sinister sense; see examples in Pref. to Brachet's Etym. F. Dict. sect. 196.   C. It appears to be now ascertained that O.F. bastard meant 'a son of a bast' (not of a bed), where bast is the mod. F. bât, a pack-saddle, and Low Lat. bastum, a pack-saddle.   See Brachet, who quotes:  'Sagma, sella quam vulgus bastum vocat, super quo componuntur sarcinæ;' and refers to M. G. Paris, Histoire poétique de Charlemagne, p. 441, for further information.   ¶ The word was very widely spread after the time of William I, on account of his exploits, and found its way into nearly all the Celtic dialects, and into Icelandic.   In Cleasby and Vigfusson's Icel. Dict., s.v. bastarðr in Appendix and s.v. bæsingr, an explanation of the word is attempted; but the remarks on bastarðr in the body of the Dictionary, to the effect that the word does not seem to have been originally a native Icel. word, are of more weight.   The O.F. bast, a packsaddle, was probably so named because covered with woven bast; see Bast. [†]

ADDENDA

Scheler remarks that the great antiquity of the phr. fils de bast goes far to prove the etymology.   He also cites from Burguy the precisely parallel O.F. form coitrart, a bastard, lit. 'son of a mattrass,' from coitre, a mattrass or quilt (see Quilt), and G. bankart, the same, lit. 'son of a bench,' G. bank.   These instances are, to me, quite convincing.