Obs. Also -it. [ad. L. SUPPOSITUM, q.v.]
1. Metaph. A being that subsists by itself, an individual thing or person (= SUBSTANCE 2); sometimes, a being in relation to its attributes (= SUBSTANCE 3, SUBJECT sb. 6); = SUPPOSITUM 1.
1612. Sheldon, Serm. at St. Martin’s, 7. A Christ consisting both of God and man; a perfect supposit, a compleat Person.
1675. Burthogge, Causa Dei, 55. Passions, as Actions are of Persons or Supposites.
1678. Bp. Nicholson, Expos. Catech., 192. That Christ is in the Sacrament corporally, Substantially, and perhaps Consubstantially, may have a respect to the subject or Supposite of the Relatum and Correlatum.
2. Gram. = SUBJECT sb. 8; also, the antecedent of a relative.
c. 1620. A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 30. We inquyre of that we wald knaw; as, made God man without synne; and in this the supposit of the verb followes the verb. We avoue that quhilk we knaw; as, God made man without sinne; and in this the supposit preceedes the verb.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, I. xii. 51. The Relative [whose] referred to the former, not the latter Antecedent … [the Lord] is the only Supposite … to whom it could relate.
