Dictionary

baseborn en · ADJ

Etymology

From base + born.

Meanings

1. (not-comparable) bastard, illegitimate
   • He said, "Though the law did not positively allow the destroying such base-born children, yet it held them to be the children of nobody; that the Church considered them as the children of nobody; and that at the best, they ought to be brought up to the lowest and vilest offices of the commonwealth." 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
2. (not-comparable) Of lowly birth.
   • And while the baſe borne Tartars take it vp, You fighting more for honor than for gold: Shall maſſacre those greedie minded ſlaues. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:
   • Non-Arabs, of whatever racial origin, were of course baseborn, but so too were many Arabs who, for one reason or another, were not full and free members of a tribe. 2001, Bernard Lewis, Islam in history: ideas, people, and events in the Middle East, page 248:

Forms