a. [f. prec. + -AL 1.] Of the nature of, involving or based on supposition; hypothetical, conjectural; supposed.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., xxi. § 5. 130. Having gotten an example (erroneous and supposi[ti]onall) [orig. putaticio] they straightway slide to a generality.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 95. We have the sensible eviction of our own eyes to confute this Suppositional Vacuity.
a. 1716. South, Serm., 1 John iii. 30 (1744), IX. 327. Men and angels … have also a certain knowledge of them; but it is not absolute, but only suppositional; that is, upon supposal that such and such things continue in their being.
1865. Mozley, Miracles, vii. 152. To say that all this change would have gone on without doctrine, is … suppositional only.
1901. H. W. Holden, Guidance for Men, 140. The case is not altogether a suppositional one; it is found in fact.
Hence † Suppositionality, suppositional quality (but in quots. app. used for SUPPOSITALITY); Suppositionally adv. (in mod. Dicts.), hypothetically.
1650. Charleton, Paradoxes, 133. How much the Law and the Soule differ in the suppositionality of Essence.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., xxxv. § 33. 268. The amative or loving faculty, which proceeds from that supposi[ti]onality [orig. suppositionalitate] of the minde which is substantial love.
