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bast

Pronunciation: /bɑːst/

The English word “bast” has 4 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Inner bark of a tree from which rope is traditionally made.
  2. Fibre made from the phloem of certain plants (particularly the lime tree) and used for making ropes, cords and matting.
  3. Bastardy, illegitimacy of birth.

adjective

  1. Illegitimate, born out of wedlock.

Etymology

From Middle English bast, from Old English bæst (“bast, inner bark of trees from which ropes were made”), from Proto-West Germanic *bast (compare the Swedish bast, Dutch bast, German Bast), perhaps an alteration of Proto-Indo-European *bʰask-, *bʰasḱ- (“bundle”) (compare English basket, Middle Irish basc (“necklace”), Latin fascis (“bundle”), Albanian bashkë (“tied, linked”)), though this is…

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