bastardisation

Noun

bastardization (countable and uncountable, plural bastardizations)

1. 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.1994, West's South Eastern Reporter, page 889
2. The creation of offspring from two different species; cross-breeding.
   • The uneven number discovered in the four species mentioned may have arisen in one of two ways : through bastardization, or through a mitotic abnormality, each of which possibilities may now be considered. In the case of bastardization of a germ cell with one chromosomal number by a germ cell from...1901, Thomas Harrison Montgomery, A Study of the Chromosomes of the Germ Cells of Metazoa, page 213
3. (broadly) 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.1925, Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
4. 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?1996, James Lambert, The Macquarie Book of Slang, Sydney: Macquarie Library, page 2
5. (broadly) 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.1978, Park McGinty, Interpretation and Dionysos: Method in the Study of a God, →ISBN, page 35
6. 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.2000, Overland - Issues 158-161, page 104