That Explains So Much:
On June 18, 1912, Congress passed a law entitled,
An Act to provide for the support and maintenance of bastards in the District of Columbia.
UPDATE: Comments were originally busted on this; I reposted it, so comments should now work.
Really, you do not insult someone so much by attacking the morals or marital status of their mother. Why is that significant anymore?
On the other hand, flatulence jokes retain a continued appeal and far be it from me to prevent someone from insulting another in regard to their mother's army boots.
And what is your position regarding liars, and the possible flammability of their pants?
I'm so confused.
It's not really significant any more, which is reflected in the way most people use the word 'bastard'. Despite it's origins, these days I think most people using (or hearing it) it aren't thinking about someone's parentage, they're just using it to describe someone as "offensive or disagreeable" or as "a generalized term of abuse".
Where the hell is our money?!!
I know Congress has a very low approval rating, but it's still not very nice to call them bastards.
Your law school has two libraries, a fitness center with pool, and its own high-rise apartment building. (And if you're a faculty member, it's even cushier.) Shut up, bastard. ;)
But seriously though, the jokes write themselves on this.
Figures...
I thought it said "An Act to provide for the support and maintenance of the bastards in the District of Columbia."
I think I like it better that way anyway.
Bob
Yes. "Bastard" and "tool" are now more or less equivalent. Except in the phrase "you lucky bastard". Because "you lucky tool" doesn't really make sense.
since we're on the topic:
Which insult came first, "son of a bitch" or "bitch."
It doesn't work that way: Evolution and all that stuff that Huxley was on about.
JerryT:
Most of the better known bastards were raised in makeshift kennels in the Capitol basement.
I didn't know that. Is it legal to wager on their fights?
I suspect it's the other way around, although "son of a bitch" dates to 1330, and "bitch" as a term of contempt for a woman is after 1400. If "bikkju-sonr" is our oldest example, it might mean "son of a dog."
On the subject of "bastard," that seems to have taken its modern pejorative meaning in the 1830s. I've long suspected that it was a taboo deformation of the earlier "dastard," which was a term of abuse from the mid-16th century.
http://www.etymonline.com has a wealth of information on words with fine Old English pedigrees, if you'll pardon my French.
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