different between law vs illegitimate

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: lô, IPA^(key): /l??/
  • Rhymes: -??
• (US) enPR: lô, IPA^(key): /l?/
• (cot–caught merger) enPR: lä, IPA^(key): /l?/
• Homophone: la (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
• Homophone: lore (in non-rhotic accents with the horse-hoarse merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English lawe, la?e, from Old English lagu (“law”), from Old Norse l?g (“law”, literally “things laid down or fixed”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lag? (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *leg?- (“to lie”). Cognate with Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”). Replaced Old English ? and ?esetnes. More at lay. Unrelated to French loi nor Spanish ley, since they both derive from *le?- (“to gather”).

Noun

law (countable and uncountable, plural laws)

1. The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities.
   1. The body of such rules that pertain to a particular topic.

   2. Common law, as contrasted with equity.
2. A binding regulation or custom established in a community in this way.
3. (more generally) A rule, such as:
   1. Any rule that must or should be obeyed, concerning behaviours and their consequences. (Compare mores.)

   2. A rule or principle regarding the construction of language or art.
   3. A statement (in physics, etc) of an (observed, established) order or sequence or relationship of phenomena which is invariable under certain conditions. (Compare theory.)
      • 1992 March 2, Richard Preston, The New Yorker, "The Mountains of Pi":

        Observing pi is easier than studying physical phenomena, because you can prove things in mathematics, whereas you can’t prove anything in physics. And, unfortunately, the laws of physics change once every generation.

   4. (mathematics, logic) A statement (of relation) that is true under specified conditions; a mathematical or logical rule.

   5. Any statement of the relation of acts and conditions to their consequences.

   6. (cricket) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the its (former) governing body, the MCC.
4. The control and order brought about by the observance of such rules.

5. (informal) A person or group that act(s) with authority to uphold such rules and order (for example, one or more police officers).

6. The profession that deals with such rules (as lawyers, judges, police officers, etc).

7. Jurisprudence, the field of knowledge which encompasses these rules.

8. Litigation, legal action (as a means of maintaining or restoring order, redressing wrongs, etc).

9. (now uncommon) An allowance of distance or time (a head start) given to a weaker (human or animal) competitor in a race, to make the race more fair.
10. (fantasy) One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos.
11. (law, chiefly historical) An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. (Chiefly in the phrases "wager of law", "wage one's law", "perform one's law", "lose one's law".)

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

law (third-person singular simple present laws, present participle lawing, simple past and past participle lawed)

1. (obsolete) To work as a lawyer; to practice law.
2. (transitive, intransitive, chiefly dialectal) To prosecute or sue (someone), to litigate.
   • 1860, George Eliot (Mary Anne Lewes), The Mill on the Floss:

     Your husband's [...] so given to lawing, they say. I doubt he'll leave you poorly off when he dies.
3. (nonstandard) To rule over (with a certain effect) by law; govern.
4. (informal) To enforce the law.
5. To subject to legal restrictions.

See also

• Appendix:Legal terms
• Appendix:Glossary of legal terms
• Category:Law
• lawe

Etymology 2

From Middle English lawe, from Old English hl?w (“burial mound”). Also spelled low.

Noun

law (plural laws)

1. (obsolete) A tumulus of stones.
2. (Scotland and Northern England, archaic) A hill.

Etymology 3

Compare la.

Interjection

law

1. (dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

References

Etymology in ODS

Anagrams

• AWL, WAL, WLA, Wal., awl, lwa

Khumi Chin

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *khlaa, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g-la. Cognates include Tibetan ???? (zla ba) and Burmese ? (la.).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l??/

Noun

law

1. moon
2. month

References

• R. Shafer (1944) , “Khimi Grammar and Vocabulary”, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, volume 11, issue 2, page 422
• K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin?^[1], Payap University, page 42

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *l?v?, from Proto-Indo-European *lewo-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /law/

Noun

law m (diminutive lawk, feminine equivalent lawowka)

1. lion (Panthera leo)

Declension

Derived terms

• lawica
• lawik
• lawowy

Further reading

• law in Ernst Muka/Mucke (St. Petersburg and Prague 1911–28): S?ownik dolnoserbskeje r?cy a jeje nar?cow / Wörterbuch der nieder-wendischen Sprache und ihrer Dialekte. Reprinted 2008, Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• law in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski s?ownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.

Middle English

Noun

law

1. Alternative form of lawe

Scots

Noun

law (plural laws)

1. law
2. rounded hill (usually conical, frequently isolated or conspicuous)

Sranan Tongo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lau?/

Verb

law

1. To be crazy
2. To drive somebody crazy

Upper Sorbian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *l?v?, from Proto-Indo-European *lewo-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lau?/

Noun

law m

1. lion (Panthera leo)

Declension

Derived terms

• lawica, lawjace/-a/-y, lawowe/-a/-y

Welsh

Noun

law

1. Soft mutation of glaw (“rain”).

Mutation

Noun

law

1. Soft mutation of llaw (“hand”).

Mutation

English

Etymology

Based on Latin illegitimus; equivalent to il- +? legitimate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l??d??t?m?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): [?l??d?????m?t]
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?l??d??t?m?t/

Adjective

illegitimate (comparative more illegitimate, superlative most illegitimate)

1. Not conforming to known principles, or established or accepted rules or standards.

   Synonym: invalid

   Antonym: valid

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 38,^[1]

     […] it may be impossible to convince them that the illegitimate power which they obtain, by degrading themselves, is a curse […]

   • 1927, J. B. S. Haldane, “Possible Worlds” in Possible Worlds and Other Essays, London: Chatto and Windus,^[2]

     The so-called interstellar space […] has not the properties of ordinary space. It will not conduct sound, nor can a human being move through it. It is therefore illegitimate to measure it in miles.

   • 2009, J. M. Coetzee, Summertime, New York: Viking, “Martin,” p. 209,^[3]

     Our attitude was that, to put it briefly, our presence there [in South Africa] was legal but illegitimate. We had an abstract right to be there, a birthright, but the basis of that right was fraudulent. Our presence was grounded in a crime, namely colonial conquest, perpetuated by apartheid.

2. Not in accordance with the law.

   Synonyms: illegal, illicit, unlawful

   Antonym: legal

   • 1914, Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, New York: John Lane, Chapter 54, p. 475,^[4]

     […] if things went on at this rate it would be doubtful soon whether ever again he would be able to win another election by methods legitimate or illegitimate.

3. Not sanctioned by marriage.
   • 1783, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, Volume 1, Chapter 8, p. 317,^[5]

     If we credit the scandal of the former [i.e. his enemies], Artaxerxes sprang from the illegitimate commerce of a tanner’s wife with a common soldier.

   • 1916, Abraham Brill (translator), Leonardo da Vinci: A Psychosexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence, New York: Moffat, Yard, Chapter 6, p. 118,^[6]

     His illegitimate birth deprived him of the influence of a father until perhaps his fifth year […]

   1. Born to unmarried parents.

      Synonym: natural

      • c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene 7,^[7]

        I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate.

      • 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 51,^[8]

        ‘This child,’ said Mr. Brownlow, drawing Oliver to him, and laying his hand upon his head, ‘is your half-brother; the illegitimate son of your father […] ’

   2. (dated) Having a child or children with a person to whom one is not married.
      • 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Book 3, Chapter 27,^[9]

        She had only to collect her memories, which proved to her that “anybody” regarded the illegitimate children as more rightfully to be looked shy on and deprived of social advantages than illegitimate fathers.

      • 1935, Carolyn Wells, The Beautiful Derelict, New York: Triangle Books, Chapter 13, p. 222,^[10]

        I heard last night that a what-do-you-call it?—claimant?—has arrived who says Pat Wayne is his illegitimate father.

4. Not correctly deduced.

   Synonyms: illogical, invalid

   Antonyms: logical, valid

   • 1658, Kenelm Digby, A Late Discourse […] Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy, London: R. Lownes and T. Davies, p. 75,^[11]

     […] in natural things we must have recourse […] to experience. And all reasoning that is not supported so, ought to be repudiated, or at least suspected to be illegitimate.

   • 1734, George Berkeley, The Analyst, London: J. Tonson, Section 27, pp. 44-45,^[12]

     […] it is illegitimate to reduce an Equation, by subducting from one Side a Quantity when it is not to be destroyed, or when an equal Quantity is not subducted from the other Side of the Equation:

5. Not authorized by good usage; not genuine.

   Synonym: spurious

   an illegitimate word

6. (botany) Involving the fertilization of pistils by stamens not of their own length, in heterogonously dimorphic and trimorphic flowers.

   illegitimate union; illegitimate fertilization

   • 1877, Charles Darwin, The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species, Chapter 1,^[13]

     […] the legitimate unions between the two forms of the above nine species of Primula are much more fertile than the illegitimate unions; although in the latter case pollen was always taken from a distinct plant of the same form.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:illegitimate

Antonyms

• legitimate

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• illegitimate on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

illegitimate (plural illegitimates)

1. A person born to unmarried parents.

   Synonyms: natural child, lovechild, bastard

   • 1966, Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea, New York: Norton, Part 2, p. 96,^[14]

     Her father and mine was a shameless man and of all his illegitimates I am the most unfortunate and poverty stricken.

Translations

Verb

illegitimate (third-person singular simple present illegitimates, present participle illegitimating, simple past and past participle illegitimated)

1. (transitive) To make illegitimate.