misbegotten

adjective

mis·​be·​got·​ten ˌmis-bi-ˈgä-tᵊn 

1

dated : unlawfully conceived : born to parents not married to each other

a misbegotten child

2

a

: having a disreputable or improper origin : ill-conceived

antiquated and misbegotten tax laws

—R. M. Blough

b

: contemptible

a misbegotten scoundrel

c

: deformed

The road brought you to a desert place among ruins, where was a door in a hillside, and hard by the door a misbegotten pine.

—Robert Louis Stevenson

Did you know?

In the beginning, there was begietan, and begietan begot beyeten; then in the days of Middle English beyeten begot begeten. All of the Old English and Middle English ancestors above basically meant the same thing as the modern beget—that is, "to father" or "to produce as an effect or outgrowth." That linguistic line with the prefix mis- (meaning "wrongly" or "badly") brought forth misbegotten.

Synonyms

• baseborn
• illegitimate
• natural
• spurious
• supposititious
• unfathered

Examples of misbegotten in a Sentence

a misbegotten child who never knew his father

Recent Examples on the Web

Accepting a role in this misbegotten exercise was a giant strategic mistake, one driven less by the basic needs of Palestinian nationalism than the personal interests of Palestinian leaders. —Yousef Munayyer, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2019

The misbegotten fusions of spending and regulation and of business and government confound free enterprise and capitalism. —Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Forbes, 6 Sep. 2024

The question of where the conflict goes from here, however, and what will remain in the aftermath is one that neither filmmaker is able to answer; it will be left to historians to make sense of another senseless, misbegotten war. —Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 5 Sep. 2024

Many of the same people who set on this misbegotten course with Dominion continue to influence energy policies as Governor Lamont struggles to make increase the overall supply and require that 40% of it comes from renewable sources in five years. —Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant, 10 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

misbegotten

adjective

mis·​be·​got·​ten ˌmis-bi-ˈgät-ᵊn 

1

: born to parents not married to each other

—used especially in the past

2

: wrongfully or improperly created