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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Azzy" data-source="post: 8104541" data-attributes="member: 6563">I already did. The word bard predates 1754, BTW—it comes from Proto-Celtic "bardos" and passes through to Old Irish and to Scottish Gaelic. In Ireland, bards were one of two classes of professional poets (the other being the higher-ranked fili) and often worked for chiefs and kings, are featured in Irish myth and legends. Romans also used "bardus" (a Latinized version of the Gaulish word), to describe Gaulish singers and poets. The recognized profession of bard lasted until in Ireland untin the mid-17th century and in Scotland until the early 18th century. So, your mid-18th century Scottish law postdates the actual profession's demise. The word was in use without negative conotation long before that law ever came to be. So,this derrogatory usage of the word was limited to Scotland and only from some point in the 18th-century (I couldn't find any details of prior perjorative usage aside from an unattested reference to the 16th-century in Wikipedia) until, at the latest, when Sir Walter Scott reclaimed it sometime during the late 18th/early19th century. So, um, no. "Bard" has not been a derogatorry term "Since it was invented, and for about 300 years after that until the term got romanticized.".I would apologize for the snark, but...No, but if you make an assertion , the onus is upon you to support that assertion.</blockquote>