noun, feminine/ba.sɛs/plural: bassesses
baseness, lowness, contemptibility; something trivial; quality of being of low, unnoble birth
“Je croyais que ma vie pourrait se calculer sur cette phrase, s'en inspirer, en jaillir comme une perverse image d'Épinal : j'oubliais les temps morts, la discontinuité et les bons sentiments quotidiens. Idéalement, j'envisageais une vie de bassesses et de turpitudes.” — I believed that my life could be calculated on this sentence, inspired by it, springing from it like a perverse image of Epinal: I forgot the dead times, the discontinuity and the daily good feelings. Ideally, I envisaged a life of baseness and turpitudes.
From bas + -esse.