Bastard
What does “Bastard” mean in English?
It's an insult for someone considered nasty or contemptible. The literal meaning refers to someone born outside of marriage, which carries a stigma.
Literally “person born outside marriage”
It's used similarly to calling someone a 'bastard' in English, aimed directly at the person in a derogatory way. The tone can vary, but it's generally not as harsh as other insults.
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Related German words
Drecksack
3/5 · VulgarIt's an insult for someone who's nasty or dishonest. Literally, it translates to 'dirt bag.'
Drecksau
3/5 · VulgarIt's a coarse insult aimed at someone considered filthy or contemptible. Literally, it translates to 'dirty sow.'
Dreckskerl
3/5 · VulgarIt's an insult aimed at a nasty man or scoundrel. The literal translation is 'dirty fellow.'
Mistkerl
3/5 · VulgarIt's an insult for a nasty or unpleasant person. Literally, it translates to 'dung fellow.'
About this data
Swear Atlas is a source-attested, AI-curated reference — not a native-speaker-certified dictionary. Meanings and the 1–5 Burn Rating are approximate editorial assessments that vary with context, region, tone and speaker. Inclusion of a word does not constitute endorsement of its use.
The literal gloss is a short editorial translation to show word-for-word sense, not an etymological claim.
“Sounds like” is an English-friendly approximation of how the word sounds, not an authoritative pronunciation. Where shown, the romanisation is a conventional Latin-script transliteration of the original spelling.
Term attested via Viddexa SafeText, FlacSy/BadWords, washyourmouthoutwithsoap (MIT, MIT AND CC-BY-4.0). Editorial content © Swear Atlas.