[Pearls Before Swine]

Technically, a person born out of wedlock is a bastard BUT the word "bastard" has become so strongly perjorative over the years, I try not to use it.

Let's think about WHY the term is so perjorative. I believe it is because society was so down on illegitamate children in times past (because someone would have to pick up the tab, possibly for religious reasons) that many of them became bad actors in reaction to their constant ill treatment--real bastards, so to speak. Of course, there's also the family pathology aspect of single parent upbringing, which may or may not be more relevant to our times than times past.

[antivenom]

AAahhh the good old days...when people understood the word "SHAME", and how their ACTIONS affected the family and community...in the good old days poor moral actions had consequences.

[genefromjersey]

I think it became a perjorative gradually: Royal bastards were often a problem in matters of succession. (Queen Elizabeth 1st had been declared a "bastard" after her mother was beheaded. It was complicated: don't ask ! )

The Noblemen of France and England were apt to be quite democratic about sowing their "seed", and there were often revolutions based on dissatisfied barons pledging loyalty to one royal bastard or another.

Incidentally, one of my children ( I forget which one ) was legally a "bastard" until adoption. Perhaps this explains why I am a bit sensitive about the term...