suppositious
Adjective

suppositious

  1. (obsolete) Spurious; substituted for the genuine, counterfeit; fake.
    • 1616, James VI and I, A Remonstrance of the Most Gratious King James I, Cambridge, p. 22,
      […] who knowes not how false, how suppositious, the writings and Epistles of the auncient Popes are iustly esteemed?
    • 1794, Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia, London: J. Johnson, Volume 1, Section 16.9, p. 154,
      […] a hen teaches this language with equal ease to the ducklings, she has hatched from suppositious eggs, and educates as her own offspring […]
    • 1913, Frederick Merrick White, Powers of Darkness, Chapter 26,
      […] unfortunately for you, the real Faber and the suppositious Faber, alias Draycott, were much alike in one respect. They gave way to drinking bouts at regular intervals.
  2. Imaginary; fictitious, pretended to exist.
    • 1940, Sinclair Lewis, Bethel Merriday, Chapter 14,
      At rehearsals the actor tossed an entirely imaginary cloak about his shoulders as though it were heavy brocade, courteously removed a hat made of air, and seriously set out on a suppositious table a non-existent dinner, after sedulously cooking it on a kitchen range that was a chair.
  3. Hypothetical.
    • 1946, Isaac Asimov, “Evidence” in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Volume 38, No. 1, September 1946, p. 125,
      Look, Dr. Lanning, let me present you with a suppositious case. Supposing we had a politician who was interested in defeating a reform candidate at any cost and while investigating his private life came across oddities such as I have just mentioned.



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