misbeget

English edit

Etymology edit

From mis- +‎ beget. Compare Middle English misbeȝete (“an illegitimate child”, literally “one who is misbegotten”).

Verb edit

misbeget (third-person singular simple present misbegets, present participle misbegetting, simple past misbegot, past participle misbegotten)

To beget wrongly or badly.
1. To produce children from an illicit or inappropriate union, especially when such children suffer birth defects.
  - 1869, Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth:
    Therefore, Master Giles, buss the old folk, and thank them for misbegetting of thee, and ho ! you, — bring hither his mule !
  - 1897, The Works of Xenophon:
    The greatest of all penalties; for what worse calamity can human beings suffer in the production of offspring than to misbeget?'
  - 1947, The Eugenics Review - Volumes 38-39, page 134:
    What about parents who, through fecklessness and stupidity misbeget a sequence of unwanted children and then so ill- treat or neglect them that they have to be removed from their care ?
  - 2000, Cass Dalglish, Nin, page 48:
    The Philosopher Took the first shot And called a woman Misbegot. But Thomas, tell me, Tete a tete, Whose fault is it To misbeget?
2. To create or produce something badly.
  - 1886, Frederic William Farrar, Sermons and Addresses Delivered in America, page 118:
    Take it; disperse the rich man's store ; Take it, and satisfy your need ; Then misbeget some millions more For our posterity to feed.
  - 1970, The practical lawyer - Volumes 16-18, page 42:
    The lawyer's training, experience, and self-discipline can help to bring order into the frequently chaotic world of labor arbitration—to substitute reason and logic for the emotionalism and sloppy thinking that misbeget many arbitration proceedings, and sometimes the decisions as well.
  - 1985, Janet Flanner, Natalia Danesi Murray, Darlinghissima: Letters to a Friend, page 22:
    ...when we recall that the world of young men about to die, and older humans, about to grieve, allowed such crotty creatures to decide for us, to appease for us and themselves, to mismanage, to misread, misprophesy, mistake and misbeget the future as they did, I can only suppose we should decide to accept the worst in life, rather than the best as normal.