(the Apocrypha) (treated as sing. or pl ) books included in the Septuagint (Greek version of Old Testament) and vulgate (St Jerome's Latin Bible) but excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament: compare pseudepigrapha
writings or statements of dubious authenticity, or a collection of such writings
[medieval Latin apocrypha, neuter pl of apocryphus hidden, ultimately from Greek apokryptein to hide away]