Pronounced: ah-TAHL-uh-kuhn, adj
Notes: I’m a little surprised that this word was new to me
Yesterday’s word
The word misbegotten means
- unlawfully conceived; illegitimate
- having a disreputable or improper origin
- not worthy of respect or approval
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
The only definition I knew was the third one; I have a faint memory of hearing it used in some old-time radio show; one character used used the word to describe things he didn’t think like (Whose misbegotten idea was this!?!?). After seeing the definitions, I realized that I should have been able to work out the first definition: after all, one of the most famous verses in the Bible is John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…) contains the root word ‘begotten’ and I recognized the prefix mis- (wrong; bad; not). These two together should have given me the first definition. The second definition is clearly a generalization of the first definition… and, of course, the third is broader still.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 