abâtardir

a- + bâtard (“bastard”) + -ir, originally "to bastardize, to make to lose racial characteristics"

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abâtardir

1. to cause something's qualities or defining characteristics to degenerate; to defile or degrade; to bastardize
   • 1580, Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book I, CHapter 26 (modernized spelling), translated by Charles Cotton:

     Ôtez moy la violence et la force; il n’est rien, à mon avis, qui abâtardisse et étourdisse si fort une nature bien née.

     Away with this violence! away with this compulsion! than which, I certainly believe nothing more dulls and degenerates a well-descended nature.

   • 2005, Lloyd Bradley, Bass culture: quand le reggae était roi, translated by Manuel Rabasse, Allia, p. 366,

     Tandis qu’il adaptait l’équipement, ajoutait—et abâtardissait—de nouveaux systèmes périphériques et bricolait les circuits pratiquement de jour en jour.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to degrade; to degenerate; to become bastardized
   • 1840, Louis René Villermé, Tableau de l'état physique et moral des ouvriers employés dans les manufactures de coton, de laine et de soie, page 407:

     On vous a dit que c’était dans les filatures que la race s’abâtardissait.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1995, Léon Dion, "Propos désabusés d'un fédéraliste fatigué," in C.E.S. Franks & John Meisel (eds.), Canada's century : governance in a maturing society : essays in honour of John Meisel, McGill-Queen's University Press, p. 95,

     D’où cette conscience tragique chez nos écrivains et l’intelligentsia en général que le français est ici menacé et qu’il s’abâtardit parmi la population.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• The verb is most frequently used in its participial or pronominal forms, and now rarely in its transitive form.
• Very commonly used to refer to language or culture.

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

• abâtardi
• abâtardissement

• “abâtardir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.