Wiktionary

illegitimate

English

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Etymology

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First attested in 1536, from Latin illēgitimus, most likely an adapted borrowing of Middle French illegitime; equivalent to il- +‎ legitimate, see -ate (etymology 1, 2 and 3).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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illegitimate (comparative more illegitimate, superlative most illegitimate)

  1. Not conforming to known principles, or established or accepted rules or standards.
    Synonym: invalid
    Antonym: valid
    • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 38:
      […] it may be impossible to convince them that the illegitimate power which they obtain, by degrading themselves, is a curse […]
    • 1927, J. B. S. Haldane, “Possible Worlds”, in Possible Worlds and Other Essays‎[1], London: Chatto and Windus:
      The so-called interstellar space […] has not the properties of ordinary space. It will not conduct sound, nor can a human being move through it. It is therefore illegitimate to measure it in miles.
    • 2009, J. M. Coetzee, “Martin”, in Summertime‎[2], New York: Viking, page 209:
      Our attitude was that, to put it briefly, our presence there [in South Africa] was legal but illegitimate. We had an abstract right to be there, a birthright, but the basis of that right was fraudulent. Our presence was grounded in a crime, namely colonial conquest, perpetuated by apartheid.
  2. Not in accordance with the law.
    Synonyms: illegal, illicit, unlawful
    Antonym: legal
    • 1914, Theodore Dreiser, chapter 54, in The Titan‎[3], New York: John Lane, page 475:
      […] if things went on at this rate it would be doubtful soon whether ever again he would be able to win another election by methods legitimate or illegitimate.
  3. Not sanctioned by marriage.
    1. Born to unmarried parents.
      Synonyms: natural; see also Thesaurus:illegitimate
      an illegitimate child
    2. (dated) Having a child or children with a person to whom one is not married.
      • 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 27, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:
        She had only to collect her memories, which proved to her that “anybody” regarded the illegitimate children as more rightfully to be looked shy on and deprived of social advantages than illegitimate fathers.
      • 1935, Carolyn Wells, chapter 13, in The Beautiful Derelict‎[6], New York: Triangle Books, page 222:
        I heard last night that a what-do-you-call it?—claimant?—has arrived who says Pat Wayne is his illegitimate father.
  4. Not correctly deduced.
    Synonyms: illogical, invalid
    Antonyms: logical, valid
    an illegitimate inference
    • 1658, Kenelm Digby, A Late Discourse […] Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy‎[7], London: R. Lownes and T. Davies, page 75:
      […] in natural things we must have recourse […] to experience. And all reasoning that is not supported so, ought to be repudiated, or at least suspected to be illegitimate.
    • 1734, George Berkeley, The Analyst‎[8], London: J. Tonson, Section 27, pp. 44-45:
      […] it is illegitimate to reduce an Equation, by subducting from one Side a Quantity when it is not to be destroyed, or when an equal Quantity is not subducted from the other Side of the Equation:
  5. Not authorized by good usage; not genuine.
    Synonym: spurious
    an illegitimate word
  6. (botany) Involving the fertilization of pistils by stamens not of their own length, in heterogonously dimorphic and trimorphic flowers.
    illegitimate union; illegitimate fertilization

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Noun

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illegitimate (plural illegitimates)

  1. A person born to unmarried parents.
    Synonyms: natural child, lovechild, bastard
    • 1966, Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea‎[10], New York: Norton, Part 2, p. 96:
      Her father and mine was a shameless man and of all his illegitimates I am the most unfortunate and poverty stricken.

Translations

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Verb

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illegitimate (third-person singular simple present illegitimates, present participle illegitimating, simple past and past participle illegitimated)

  1. (transitive) To make illegitimate.
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