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illegitimate

/ˌɪlɪˈdʒɪtəmət/

Not lawful, authorized, or born within marriage

From Latin il- (not) + Latin legitimate (lawful).

adjective
noun
verb
il-
Latin
AI-inferred
il-
Negative prefix meaning “not”; an assimilated form used before l.
Late Latin
AI-inferred
il-
Combined with legitim-us to form illēgitimus, “not legitimate.”
legitimate
Latin
AI-inferred
lēx, genitive legis
“Law”; the foundational noun behind the legal sense.
Latin
Verified
lēgitimus
“Lawful,” originally “fixed by law” or “in line with the law.”

from Latin illēgitimus, most likely an adapted borrowing of Middle French illegitime, equivalent to il- +‎ legitimate,...

Medieval Latin
AI-inferred
lēgitimātus
Past participle of legitimāre, “to make lawful.”
Middle English
AI-inferred
legitimat, legytymat
Borrowed through French and used of someone lawfully born.
Combined
Latin illēgitimus
The negative prefix il- joins legitimate-derived material to mean “not lawful” or “not legitimate.”
Middle French
AI-inferred
illegitime
Likely transmission form for the English word.
English, c. 1500
AI-inferred
illegitime
Earlier English form, later replaced by illegitimate.
English, 1530s–1536
AI-inferred
illegitimate
Originally “born out of wedlock” or “unlawfully begotten.”
English, 1640s
AI-inferred
illegitimate
Broadened to mean unauthorized, irregular, or unwarranted.
Modern English
illegitimate
“

A Roman legal document could make a child “legitimate” in the most literal sense: the child was lēgitimus, connected to lex, the Latin word for law. Add il-, the small Latin alarm bell meaning “not,” and you get illēgitimus—“not lawful.” English first recorded illegitimate in the 1530s, chiefly for a child born outside marriage, when inheritance and family status were matters of paperwork, property, and social survival. By the 1640s, the word had escaped the nursery and courthouse, describing anything unauthorized or procedurally improper: an illegitimate argument, claim, or government. Its legal ancestry also explains the family resemblance among legitimate, legal, legislation, and legislature: behind them all stands the image of a line drawn by law—and illegitimate marks whatever has crossed it without permission.

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