释义 |
spurious, a.|ˈspjʊərɪəs| [f. L. spuri-us illegitimate, false. Cf. It. spurio, Sp. espurio.] 1. Of persons: Begot or born out of wedlock; illegitimate, bastard, adulterous.
1598Bp. Hall Sat. vi. i, But can it be aught but a spurious seed That grows so rife in such unlikely speed? 1604T. Wright Passions 166 Commonly such spurious ympes [bastards] follow the steppes of their bad parents. 1635Quarles Embl. i. v, Froth-born Venus and her brat, With all that spurious brood young Iove begat. 1651W. G. tr. Cowel's Inst. 26 A spurious Issue may by silence and patience be rendred legitimate. 1734tr. Rollin's Rom. Hist. (1827) III. 66 All children that were spurious and illegitimate were exempted from the same duty. 1768Walpole Hist. Doubts 77 Henry came of the spurious stock of John of Gaunt. 1815Southey Roderick vi. 89 The spurious race Whom in unhappy hour Favila's wife Brought forth for Spain. 1885Law Rep. 14 Q.B. Div. 792 Adultery by the wife followed by the birth of a spurious child. absol.1628–30Bp. Hacket in Plume Life (1865) 30 The Lutherans..baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious. b. fig. or in fig. context.
1598Marston Sco. Villanie i. ii. 175 Pert Gallus slily slips along to wage Tilting encounters with some spurious seed Of marrow pies, and yawning Oysters breede. 1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 89 That love is but the spurious, and adulterate issue of a conscious and guilty feare. 1665Glanvill Def. Van. Dogm. 73 'Tis doubtful whither they are not the spurious issue of some more modern Author. 1764Reid Inquiry i. §2. 99 In those regions the offspring of fancy is legitimate, but in philosophy it is all spurious. c. Characterized by bastardy or illegitimacy.
1770Langhorne Plutarch (1851) II. 707/2 Aridæus..was of spurious birth. 1838Lytton Calderon i. 64 He knew not for what end Calderon had forced upon him the honours of spurious parentship. 1868Milman St. Paul's viii. 203 Edmond Bonner was of obscure, according to his enemies.., of spurious birth, the son of a priest. d. Supposititious. rare.
1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 214, I cannot help surmising, that my brother..has resolved to produce to the world a spurious child as his own. 2. Having an illegitimate or irregular origin; not properly qualified or constituted.
1601B. Jonson Poetaster v. iii, Teach thy incubus to poetize; And throw abroad thy spurious snotteries, vpon that puft-vp lumpe of barmy froth. 1633Massinger Guardian ii. ii, I apprehend what thou wouldst say: I want all As means to quench the spurious fire that burns here. 1660R. Coke Power & Subj. 2 That Providence should so direct those spurious and imperfect animals, and but of yesterdays being,..to fear and avoid those who are enemies and prey upon them. 1699Pomfret On a Marriage 21 Achates' choice..from no spurious passion came, But was the product of a noble flame. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xvii. (1787) II. 18 That a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient capital. Comb.1668H. More Div. Dial. iv. xxxiii. (1713) 384 An Adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign, and a spurious⁓hearted Christian after a Prophecy. 3. Superficially resembling or simulating, but lacking the genuine character or qualities of, something; not true or genuine; false, sham, counterfeit: a. Of material things. Freq. in more or less specific use in Anat., Bot., etc.
1615H. Crooke Body of Man 394 They are diuided into true or legitimate, & bastard or spurious ribs. 1665Phil. Trans. I. 107 Making them a kind of Spurious Planets. 1668Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. iv. xvii. 353 The..bastard Ribs..do stick one to the other,..the last excepted, which is the least, and sticks to none, and therefore 'tis truly spurious. 1782Cowper Self-diffidence 37 Spurious gems our hopes entice, While we scorn the pearl of price. 1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 57 Carbon bituminated, impregnated with a notable proportion of stony matter. Spurious Coal. 1807J. E. Smith Phys. Bot. 284 There are several spurious kinds of berries, whose pulp is not properly a part of the fruit, but originates from some other organ. 1827Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 47 Traders..are often cheated, by having a kind of spurious, or bastard wood without dye, imposed upon them. 1857Henfrey Bot. 123 False or spurious dissepiments occur occasionally both in compound and simple ovaries. 1892Greener Breech-Loader 52 The spurious gun may be either a gun represented as being of a quality it is not, or as a production of a maker other than the real one. b. Of qualities, conditions, etc.
1646Maxwell Burden of Issachar 28 This scourge, which is gilded with the specious, but spurious compellation of a glorious, thorow, second Reformation. 1658T. Wall Charac. Enemies Ch. 6 When this comes into competition that spurious concord which is knit by secular respects..is suddenly overthrown. 1713Swift Cadenus & Vanessa Wks. 1751 III. ii. 8 That spurious virtue in a maid, A virtue but at second-hand. 1728Morgan Algiers II. i. 211 The City known to us under the spurious name of Algiers. 1791Burke Lett. Member Nat. Assembly Wks. I. 483 States⁓men..exist by every thing which is spurious, fictitious, and false. 1820Irving Sketch Bk. I. 205 It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive. 1863G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators III. 152 He could lash himself into a spurious anger. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III 483 There appear to be three pleasures, one genuine and two spurious. c. In the specific names of animals, birds, etc.
1781Pennant Hist. Quad. II. 37 In the southern and western provinces of Russia is a mixed breed of hares, between this and the common species. [marg.] Spurious [Hare]. 1787Latham Gen. Synop. Birds Suppl. I. 214 The Wood Grous, as well as the Spurious Grous, were extant in Scotland. 1801Shaw Gen. Zool. II ii. 476 Spurious Narwhal (Monodon Spurius), a species most allied to the Narwhal, but not perhaps, strictly speaking, of the same genus. 1889J. H. Maiden Usef. Pl. 579 Notelæa ligustrina,..‘Spurious Olive’. d. In medical or pathological use.
1693tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Spurii Morbi, as Spurious fevers, a Pleurisie, a Bastard Quinsie, and the like. 1790Med. Comm. II. 455 A woman in labour is to be treated as if suffering spurious pains, so long as the os uteri..remains..close. 1803Med. Jrnl. IX. 69 That sort of cow-pock, which had all the characteristics of the spurious kind. 1860Tanner Pregnancy 126 Spurious pregnancy is by no means an unfrequent disorder. 1877Roberts Handbk. Med. I. 29 It is necessary to mention certain morbid conditions which are known as spurious dropsies. 4. Of a writing, etc.: Not really proceeding from its reputed origin, source, or author; not genuine or authentic; forged.
1624Gataker Transubst. 43 Authors and writings, either justly suspected, or evidently spurious and counterfeit. 1682Burnet Rights Princes ii. 72, I insist not on the spurious Treatises that are ascribed to him. a1719Addison Evid. Chr. Relig. i. vii, As for the spurious Acts of Pilate, now extant. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. 2 A situation in which it is more difficult to distinguish spurious from genuine writings. 1847Emerson Repres. Men, Plato, The vexed question concerning his reputed works—what are genuine, what spurious. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) II. App. 579 The writ is clearly spurious, but it is one of those cases in which a spurious document proves something. b. Similarly of words or passages.
1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 155 Though the place be most express for Infant Baptism,..yet it is either spurious or interpolate. 1699Burnet 39 Articles vi. (1700) 79 That he should be able to distinguish what is Genuine in them from what is Spurious. 1759Dilworth Pope 91 The lines, or even the words supposed to be spurious. 1861Paley æschylus, Choeph. (ed. 2) 519 note, The words καὶ τὸν νύχιον had been marked as spurious in a former edition of this play. 5. Characterized by spuriousness or falseness.
c1840De Quincey Bentley Wks. 1859 VII. 41 When instances of spurious pretensions came in his way. 1860W. G. Ward Nat. & Grace i. 36 We may distinguish these true primary premisses from spurious counterfeits. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. p. ci, Messrs... caution buyers against Spurious Imitations of their well-known Apparatus. |