bastardization

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
   • 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.1995, Walter Wadlington, Cases and materials on domestic relations, page 311
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
   • . 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.1939, Knud Jessen, Ragnar Spärck, Danish scientific investigations in Iran, page 37
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
   • 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.1951, C. A. Du Toit, Annals of the University of Stellenbosch
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
   • Q-Tip was a bastardization of cotton-tip, very much a bastardization.2000, Vince Staten, Did Trojans Use Trojans?: A Trip Inside the Corner Drugstore, →ISBN, page 56
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
   • 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'.2007, Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War, →ISBN
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
   • 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.2012, Helene Richards, Sheila Freeman, Bullying in the Workplace: An Occupational Hazard, →ISBN