supposititious, a.
(səpɒzɪˈtɪʃəs)
[f. L. suppositītius, -īcius, f. supposit-, pa. ppl. stem of suppōnĕre: see suppone and -itious.]
1. Put by artifice in the place of another; fraudulently substituted for the genuine thing or person; hence, pretended (to be what it is not), not genuine, spurious, counterfeit, false. a. gen. (Now rare.)
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 244 Aristotles nice conceited vse therefore is but supposititious and not the true vse of Nature. 1646 Earl of Monmouth tr. Biondi's Civil Wars ix. 222 Lambert tooke upon him the person of the Earl of Warwick, by the direction of a Priest; and Ralph Wilford (for so was this second supposititious Earl called) by the direction of an Augustine Frier. 1653 Gataker Vind. Annot. Jer. 85 Who..hath shrewdly shaken the main foundations of their Supposititious Science. 1700 Rycaut Hist. Turks III. 513 He hastned away this supposititious Envoy all he could. 1770 G. White Selborne, To Barrington 12 Apr., You wonder..that the hedge-sparrows, etc., can be induced..to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without being scandalised at the vast disproportioned size of the supposititious egg. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth Introd., If any Seneschal..had, by means of paint,..endeavoured to palm upon posterity supposititious stigmata [sc. stains of Rizzio's blood]. 1830 James Darnley xxix, Being tall and thin, he had great need of some supposititious contour, to make his height seem less enormous. |
b. spec. of a child,
esp. one set up to displace the real heir or successor; sometimes used for ‘illegitimate’; also said of the birth of such a child. Also
fig.| 1625 Bacon Ess., Empire (Arb.) 305 The Succession of the Turks, from Solyman, vntill this day, is suspected to be vntrue, and of strange Bloud; For that Selymus the Second was thought to be Supposititious. a 1631 Donne Serm., 1 Cor. xv. 50 (1649) II. 126 In abastardizing a race, by supposititious children. 1652 A. Ross Hist. World i. i. 3 [The] King of Cappadocia..had one son..who died young, but his two supposititious sons..contended for the kingdome. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3759/5 A Person.., whose Supposititious Birth, and the known Laws of the Land, for ever debar from any Pretence thereto. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 189 ¶9 They conclude that the reputed Son must have been Illegitimate, Supposititious, or begotten in Adultery. 1765 Blackstone Comm. i. xvi. 456 A proceeding at common law, where a widow is suspected to feign herself with child, in order to produce a supposititious heir to the estate. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 411 Not one person in a thousand doubted that the boy was supposititious. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 97 A supposititious son, who has made the discovery that his reputed parents are not his real ones. |
| fig. 1641 Milton Prel. Episc. Wks. 1851 III. 79 Imposing upon our belief a supposititious ofspring of some dozen Epistles. 1934 H. G. Wells Exper. Autobiogr. I. v. 265 Russia..is now no longer a Communism nor a democratic Socialism... It is a novel experimental state capitalism... It is the supposititious child of necessity in the household of theory. |
c. of a writing, or passage or word in a writing.
| 1611 T. James Corrupt. Scripture i. 36 The 97. Treatise... Censured To be supposititious. 1626 Donne Serm., John xiv. 2 (1640) 743 A supposititious word, which is not in the Text. 1693 Dryden Juvenal Ded. (1697) p. xlvii, When 'tis made publick, it will easily be seen by any one Sentence, whether it be supposititious, or genuine. 1699 Bentley Phal. Pref. p. xi, Some Reasons, why I thought Phalaris's Epistles supposititious. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. (1779) I. xiv. 123 A supposititious letter of recommendation. 1778 Warton Hist. Engl. Poetry II. 166 That these distichs are undoubtedly supposititious, and that they could not possibly be written by the very venerable Roman whose name they bear. 1868 Milman St. Paul's vii. 132 Attempted to be proved by supposititious charters. |
† 2. Pretended or imagined to exist; feigned, fictitious; fabulous; fancied, imaginary.
Obs.| 1620 [G. Brydges] Horæ Subs. 388 All going in the habit of Schollers, and no sooner come thither, but they take vpon them false and supposititious names. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 94, I tearm the gold Mine he went to discover, an ayrie and supposititious [ed. 1655 suppositious] Mine. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. xi. §10. 108 Seeing the judgement depends upon them, and they upon supposititious circles, and angles. 1702 tr. Le Clerc's Prim. Fathers 23 In the time of this Author, whether he be Genuine or Supposititious. 1774 Warton Hist. Engl. Poetry I. Diss. i. i 4 b, The ideal histories of Turpin and Geoffrey of Monmouth, which record the supposititious atchievements of Charlemagne. |
3. = suppositious 3.
| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 334 As in Extraction of Roots and Equations..in working the Question is called the Supposititious or Quesitious Root. 1682 H. More Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 72 To fetch an Argument from the supposititious Supremacy of the Will of God over his Wisdom and Goodness. 1804 Edin. Rev. V. 114 The case is not entirely a supposititious one. 1850 Grove Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 2) 106 As the knowledge of any particular science developes itself,..hypotheses, or the introduction of supposititious views, are more and more dispensed with. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. iv, If you were in embarrassed circumstances—this is merely supposititious. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight iii. 32 Rays of light..are merely supposititious lines used..to bring the effects of an intangible force within the range of mathematical calculations. |
Hence
supposiˈtitiously adv. (in
quots., in sense 3);
supposiˈtitiousness (in
quots., in sense 1).
| 1623 (title) A New and Merrie Prognostication: Being a Metrical Satire, supposititiously assigned to Will Summers. 1654 Owen Doctr. Saint's Persev. Pref. C j, The supposititiousness of these Epistles. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 31 Unable to penetrate so far Southward as..River Nilus springs: albeit, supposititiously he derives it from the Lunæ montes. 1695 Whether Preserv. Protest. Relig. was Motive Revol. 39 The Supposititiousness of the Prince of Wales. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. 63 Dr. Raynolds..discover'd the Supposititiousness of the Book, De Vita Prophetarum, Father'd by the Papists upon Epiphanius. 1859 Sala Gas-light & D. ix. 108 Some terrible Dartford or Hounslow explosion, by which his limbs were (supposititiously) blown off. 1870 Baring-Gould Orig. Relig. Belief (1871) I. 343 Faculties actually or supposititiously inferior to other faculties. |