生活美語《Children born out of..》
Children born out of wedlock used to be called "illegitimate"
從前，婚姻以外生的子女叫做「私生」子女
Ron：Social attitudes have certainly changed since we were young.
羅恩：社會觀念和我們年輕時的確很不同了。
Carmen：Well of course they have. What are you talking about particularly?
卡門：這個自然。但你指的是什麼？
Ron：Well, I've just seen some statistics and they show that forty years ago only about 10 per cent of children were born out of wedlock. Today it's around sixty per cent.
羅恩：我剛才看了一些統計，顯示四十年前只有百分之十的兒童是婚姻以外所生，今天則有百分之六十左右。
Carmen：Gee, I didn't know it was that many. In the old days children born out of wedlock used to be called "illegitimate" and people looked down on them.
卡門：啊，我不知道有這麼多。從前，婚姻以外生的子女叫做「私生」子女，常被人看不起。
Ron：I know. It's good that it isn't like that any more.
羅恩：是啊，幸而現在不是這樣了。
Carmen：But it certainly isn't good that so many children like that grow up with only one parent.
卡門：但這麼多孩子在只有父親或母親的家庭長大，也絕對不是好事。
多學一點點 私生子
卡門說：Children born out of wedlock used to be called "illegitimate"。Wedlock、marriage、wedding都是說「結婚」，但wedding專指婚禮，marriage可指婚姻或婚禮，wedlock 則強調法律上的婚姻關係，例如：(1) We decided to have a simple wedding / marriage, with no best man or bridesmaid（我們決定舉行簡單婚禮，不要伴郎和伴娘）。(2)Their marriage last only seven years（他們的婚姻只維持了七年）。(3) Children born out of wedlock do not usually enjoy the same rights as those born in wedlock（私生的孩子，往往沒有婚生孩子的同等權利）。Wedlock 一字今天多見於born in wedlock、born out of wedlock 這兩個詞，此外並不常用，這裡且多舉一例：Isn't a divorce the best solution when a holy wedlock has turned into a not so holy deadlock?（神聖的婚姻假如變成不大神聖的死結，離婚不是最好的解決辦法嗎？）
婚生的孩子，叫legitimate child；私生的孩子，則叫illegitimate child（不合法規的孩子）、natural child（自然的孩子）、love child（愛的孩子）或bastard。Bastard一字有強烈侮辱含義，但今天也不常用，以免歧視之嫌。
Bastard出自法文bast。Bast即英文的packsaddle（馱鞍）。從前騾夫在途中野宿，會用馱鞍權充坐墊，甚至找神女薦枕。這就是「私生子」的來源。此外，to be born out of wedlock也可稱為to be born on the wrong side of the blanket（在毛毯不該用的一面出生）。這就是說，夫妻會在毛毯之下做愛，偷情者則匆匆在毛毯之上做，生的孩子自然是私生子。
