Also 8–9 veri-similitude. [a. obs. F. verisimilitude (1549), or ad. L. vērī similitūdo, vērisimilitūdo, f. vērī similis, vērisimilis, f. vērī, gen. of vērum truth, and similis like. Cf. Sp. verisimilitud, Pg. verisimilitude, It. verisimilitudine.]
1. The fact or quality of being verisimilar; the appearance of being true or real; likeness or resemblance to truth, reality or fact; probability.
In very frequent use from c. 1850.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1031. If we wil use the rule of probability and verisimilitude.
1654. Flecknoe, Ten Years Trav., 30. Truth has no greater Enemy than verisimilitude and likelihood.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 64. Verisimilitude and Opinion are an easie purchase; and these counterfeits are all the Vulgars treasure.
1727. Warburton, Tracts (1789), 83. Was it but Falshood’s Mask of Veri-similitude that we doated after.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, vi. § 19. His conjectures have more verisimilitude than dogmatic theories.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 289. A depth of tenderness in her large black eyes … gave a great verisimilitude to her representation of the lovelorn damsel.
1870. J. H. Newman, Gram. Assent, II. vii. 221. They are nothing more to me than … judgments on the verisimilitude of intellectual views, not the possession and enjoyment of truths.
1892. Stevenson & L. Osbourne, Wrecker, i. To add a spice of verisimilitude ‘college paper’ had an actual marketable value.
b. esp. Of statements, narrative, etc.
1671. Milton, Samson, Of Tragedy. The Plot,… which is nothing indeed but such œconomy, or disposition of the fable as may stand best with verisimilitude and decorum.
1733. G. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, I. vi. § 1 (1734). 48. If what I have advanc’d … have any Truth or Verisimilitude.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., II. v. 60. They would appear … so extravagant, as to go far beyond the bounds of that verisimilitude which must be preserved even in fictitious narration.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., xvii. (1882), 165. The characters … have all the verisimilitude and representative quality that the purposes of poetry can require.
1858. Merivale, Rom. Emp., lv. (1865), VII. 2. We must accept in the main the verisimilitude of the picture they have left us of this archtyrant.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 422. The traditional form was required in order to give verisimilitude to the myth.
2. A statement, etc., that has the mere appearance or show of being true or in accordance with fact; an apparent truth.
1783. Hailes, Antiq. Chr. Ch., iv. 141. Perhaps, the author had no farther view, than to state the Academical verisimilitudes on each side of the controversy.
1797. J. Lawrence, in Monthly Mag. (1819), XLVIII. 112/1. The advantages of sophistry are infinitely beyond those of real truth; because a fortunate and well-sounding verisimilitude is so adapted to the comprehension of nine-tenths of mankind.
1821. Lamb, Elia, I. Old Bencher’s Inner T. Henceforth let no one receive the narratives of Elia for true records! They are, in truth, but shadows of fact—verisimilitudes, not verities.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., vii. (1860), 128. I felt … that there was more truth in the verisimilitudes of fiction than in the assumptions of history.
