baseborn

• base-born

base +‎ born

baseborn (not comparable)

1. bastard, illegitimate
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     He said, "Though the law did not positively allow the destroying such base-born children, yet it held them to be the children of nobody; that the Church considered them as the children of nobody; and that at the best, they ought to be brought up to the lowest and vilest offices of the commonwealth."

2. Of lowly birth.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     And while the baſe borne Tartars take it vp,
     You fighting more for honor than for gold:
     Shall maſſacre those greedie minded ſlaues.

   • 2001, Bernard Lewis, Islam in history: ideas, people, and events in the Middle East, page 248:

     Non-Arabs, of whatever racial origin, were of course baseborn, but so too were many Arabs who, for one reason or another, were not full and free members of a tribe.