suppositious, a.
(sʌpəˈzɪʃəs)
[Partly shortened or illiterate form of supposititious, partly directly from supposition.]
1. = supposititious 1. Now rare or Obs.
| 1624 Mountagu Immed. Addr. 212 The testimony produced is none of his: It is suppositious, and a counterfeit. 1656 Bramhall Replic. v. 206, I spake not this to the disparagement of that venerable Saint, but to discredit that suppositious treatise. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. i. 138 The only question..was..whether it [sc. the child] was not spurious or suppositious. 1768 Blackstone Comm. iii. xxiii. 362 When a widow feigns herself with child, in order to exclude the next heir, and a suppositious birth is suspected to be intended. 1815 M. Pilkington Celebrity III. 130 With the intention of ordering the suppositious Mrs Johnson to quit her roof. 1863 Redding Yesterday & To-day III. 275 Suppositious letters between the Rev. James Hackman and Miss Ray. |
2. = supposititious 2. Now rare or Obs.
| 1655 [see supposititious 2, quot. c 1645]. 1781 Warton Hist. Engl. Poetry III. p. vii, Who..is often a monarch that never existed, and who seldom, whether real or suppositious, has any concern with the circumstances of the narrative. 1793 A. Seward Let. Parr 3 Feb., The suppositious treasons, forged and alleged. |
3. a. Involving or based on supposition; = suppositional, suppositive 1.
| 1698 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 7 The Julian Period..is a suppositious Number. 1810 W. Wilson Hist. Diss. Ch. III. 362 Their integrity..appears to us as very suppositious. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. xii. 457 Although suppositious alphabets of the aboriginal Britons have been produced. 1847 R. W. Hamilton Rewards & Punishm. viii. (1853) 369 With such exception we have nothing to do: it is purely suppositious. 1905 Joyce Let. 12 July (1966) II. 97 We might take a small cottage outside Dublin... Not that I imagine that the atmosphere of our suppositious cottage could..become more unpleasant to you than the atmosphere you are at present breathing. 1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. iv. 231 Most of the evidence is purely suppositious. 1978 P. W. J. Riley Union of England & Scotland 4 Although the island comprised more than one kingdom the term ‘Great Britain’ was already respectable usage... James [VI/I] now contemplated for this suppositious entity not only one king but one kingdom. 1982 Christian Sci. Monitor 26 Aug. 9/2 Being at the center of population has some commercial advantage for local inhabitants. The last stop of the suppositious point was at Mascoutah, Ill., in 1970—a town now dethroned by the new centre. |
b. ? Addicted to supposition or conjecture. rare—1.
| 1798 R. P. Tour Wales 18 (MS.), The Castle [at Ludlow] on whose early date the suppositious antiquary has many doubts to determine. |
Hence suppoˈsitiously adv., spuriously; hypothetically.
| 1693 tr. Dupin's Hist. Eccl. Writers II. 30 Books..that were suppositiously obtruded upon the World by Hereticks. 1862 Masson in Macm. Mag. Aug. 324 The career suppositiously assigned to men of his class in most Art and Culture novels. |