bastardization

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The making of a bastard or bastards; Having children out of wedlock or destroying the legitimacy of children's paternity.

   “Given the serious and long-lasting effects of bastardization, resolution of the paternity issue should be accomplished with the active participation of the court, rather than involvement that is limited to reviewing a previously-executed document.”

   “Our conclusion is not founded on the traditional arguments against bastardization: the social stigma imposed on the child and the financial burden imposed on the state.”

   “The flimsy bastardization of the princes was a flagrant violation of a cherished medieval principle, the right of inheritance.”

   “In Egyptian law, the marital presumption of paternity remains unassailable, which indicates that the social purposes it is designed to server -- defending the integrity of the marital family, protecting against the bastardization of children, and preventing exposure of the immoral conduct of the parents --- are still the dominant societal norms.”

2. (countable, uncountable)The creation of offspring from two different species; cross-breeding.

   “. It is remarkable that no less than 4 specimens (309, 345, 348, 357) from the area of bastardization show formation of eumelanin in numerous of the throat feathers instead of, as was to expected, phaeomelanin. Most probably this phenomenon too is attributable to bastardization.”

   “The males of the two species have very similar mating songs but those of the females differ. Although females could be induced to utter their mating song by males of the other species, the males were never lured by the call of females other than of their own species, so that copulation leading to bastardization did not occur (Strübing, 1965).”

3. (broadly, countable, uncountable)The combining of separate races in marriage or breeding; miscegenation.

   “This is a basis for a natural, even though slow, process of regeneration, which gradually eliminates racial poisonings as long as a basic stock of racially pure elements is still present and a further bastardization does not take place.”

   “It is emphasized that the subject of bastardization in man is one of the most fundamental of anthropological questions and one which has hitherto not received its due quota of attention.”

   “While through my veils you may have recognized the traits of my Bolg father, one of a dozen soldiers that raped my Dhracian mother, who they chose to kidnap by a toss of the bones, what you now see is the bastardization of the race of which I was the first of a generation.”

   “Not everyone agreed with this logic, since in many colonies European men continued to establish commonlaw relationships with indigenous women even where marriages with European women were frequent. The critical economist Moritz Bonn made himself unpopular with German colonial authorities when he claimed in the first decade of the twentieth century that “[t]he main cause of bastardization in Africa was not the absence of white women but the presence of black ones.”

4. (countable, uncountable)Any change or neologism in language that is viewed as a degradation.

   “And, hang on a sec, isn't bastardisation a bastardisation of language anyhow?”

   “Q-Tip was a bastardization of cotton-tip, very much a bastardization.”

   “Rastas have developed a speech and language culture out of the conventional English language. It is in fact a deliberate bastardization of the language of the oppressor, as a mark of protest against him; a psychological means of feeling free from bondage.”

   “I had learnt of the bastardization of the term from my heart disease days.”

   “With this letter, you will find the travel guide that includes a bastardization of your unexpectedly superior words.”

5. (broadly, countable, uncountable)The creation of an inferior copy or version; corruption, degradation, or debasement.

   “In this manner they viewed traditional aspects of civilization as parts of the legitimate identity of a culture. Consequently, they could interpret religion as one meaningful way for each culture to deal with external reality rather than as a superstitious bastardization of reason.”

   “This may include the bastardization or demolition of a building that no longer has a community to serve it or where its builders lack the economic or political power to resist threatening 'regeneration' or 'improvement plans'.”

   “It was an hour of bastardization of fine music that I suppose delighted the folks in Cedar Rapids and Buffalo.”

   “While a few others avow to science, and not to the creator of science, yet others are busy within make believe worlds of their own, trying to clone whatever their human possibilities can allow them to, thereby raging this earth with so much bastardization of what I call true nature of life.”

6. (countable, uncountable)Activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group.

   “The 'inspiration' for Dogs are Barking, Taylor avers, came from reading Coulthard-Clarke's history of Royal Military College, Duntroon, with its accounts of bastardization at the college, and from the author's experience of hearing fellow-officers reminisce about bastardization at the college.”

   “In my experience, bullies usually have position power and have little idea that their behaviour is perceived by workers as bullying. They probably believe that bullying is restricted to bastardization-type behaviour and that they themselves are utilising effective management strategies.”

   “However, when one looks at defence force during history and around the world one can identify bullying which can also be known as 'hazing' or 'bastardization'.”

   “Prior to the integration of women into militaries, incidents of violence were heavily situated around traditions of hazing and bastardization: men's violence towards other men.”