a. [f. L. suppositītius, -īcius, f. supposit-, pa. ppl. stem of suppōnĕre: see SUPPOSE and -ITIOUS.]
1. Put by artifice in the place of another; fraudulently substituted for the genuine thing or person; hence, pretended (to be what it is not), not genuine, spurious, counterfeit, false. a. gen. (Now rare.)
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 244. Aristotles nice conceited vse therefore is but supposititious and not the true vse of Nature.
1646. Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civil Wars, IX. 222. Lambert tooke upon him the person of the Earl of Warwick, by the direction of a Priest; and Ralph Wilford (for so was this second supposititious Earl called) by the direction of an Augustine Frier.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 85. Who … hath shrewdly shaken the main foundations of their Supposititious Science.
1700. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, III. 513. He hastned away this supposititious Envoy all he could.
1770. G. White, Selborne, To Barrington, 12 April. You wonder … that the hedge-sparrows, etc., can be induced … to sit on the egg of the cuckoo without being scandalised at the vast disproportioned size of the supposititious egg.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, Introd. If any Seneschal … had, by means of paint,… endeavoured to palm upon posterity supposititious stigmata [sc. stains of Rizzio’s blood].
1830. G. P. R. James, Darnley, xxix. Being tall and thin, he had great need of some supposititious contour, to make his height seem less enormous.
b. spec. of a child, esp. one set up to displace the real heir or successor; sometimes used for ‘illegitimate’; also said of the birth of such a child.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Empire (Arb.), 305. The Succession of the Turks, from Solyman, vntill this day, is suspected to be vntrue, and of strange Bloud; For that Selymus the Second was thought to be Supposititious.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., 1 Cor. xv. 50 (1649), II. 126. In abastardizing a race, by supposititious children.
1652. A. Ross, Hist. World, I. i. 3. [The] King of Cappadocia … had one son … who died young, but his two supposititious sons … contended for the kingdome.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3759/5. A Person…, whose Supposititious Birth, and the known Laws of the Land, for ever debar from any Pretence thereto.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 189, ¶ 9. They conclude that the reputed Son must have been Illegitimate, Supposititious, or begotten in Adultery.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. xvi. 456. A proceeding at common law, where a widow is suspected to feign herself with child, in order to produce a supposititious heir to the estate.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 411. Not one person in a thousand doubted that the boy was supposititious.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 97. A supposititious son, who has made the discovery that his reputed parents are not his real ones.
fig. 1641. Milton, Prel. Episc., Wks. 1851, III. 79. Imposing upon our belief a supposititious ofspring of some dozen Epistles.
c. of a writing, or passage or word in a writing.
1611. T. James, Corrupt. Scripture, I. 36. The 97. Treatise…. Censured To be supposititious.
1626. Donne, Serm., John xiv. 2 (1640), 743. A supposititious word, which is not in the Text.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, Ded. (1697), p. xlvii. When ’tis made publick, it will easily be seen by any one Sentence, whether it be supposititious, or genuine.
1699. Bentley, Phal., Pref. p. xi. Some Reasons, why I thought Phalaris’s Epistles supposititious.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pickle (1779), I. xiv. 123. A supposititious letter of recommendation.
1778. Warton, Hist. Engl. Poetry, II. 166. That these distichs are undoubtedly supposititious, and that they could not possibly be written by the very venerable Roman whose name they bear.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, vii. 132. Attempted to be proved by supposititious charters.
† 2. Pretended or imagined to exist; feigned, fictitious; fabulous; fancied, imaginary. Obs.
1620. [G. Brydges], Horæ Subs., 388. All going in the habit of Schollers, and no sooner come thither, but they take vpon them false and supposititious names.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 94. I tearm the gold Mine he went to discover, an ayrie and supposititious [ed. 1655 suppositious] Mine.
1652. Gaule, Magastrom., xi. § 10. 108. Seeing the judgement depends upon them, and they upon supposititious circles, and angles.
1702. trans. Le Clerc’s Prim. Fathers, 23. In the time of this Author, whether he be Genuine or Supposititious.
1774. Warton, Hist. Engl. Poetry, I. Diss. i. i 4 b. The ideal histories of Turpin and Geoffrey of Monmouth, which record the supposititious atchievements of Charlemagne.
3. = SUPPOSITIOUS 3.
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 334. As in Extraction of Roots and Equations … in working the Question is called the Supposititious or Quesitious Root.
1682. H. More, Annot. Glanvill’s Lux O., 72. To fetch an Argument from the supposititious Supremacy of the Will of God over his Wisdom and Goodness.
1804. Edin. Rev., V. 114. The case is not entirely a supposititious one.
1850. Grove, Corr. Phys. Forces (ed. 2), 106. As the knowledge of any particular science developes itself,… hypotheses, or the introduction of supposititious views, are more and more dispensed with.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. iv. If you were in embarrassed circumstances—this is merely supposititious.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, iii. 32. Rays of light … are merely supposititious lines used … to bring the effects of an intangible force within the range of mathematical calculations.
Hence Supposititiously adv. (in quots., in sense 3); Supposititiousness (in quots., in sense 1).
1623. (title) A New and Merrie Prognostication: Being a Metrical Satire, supposititiously assigned to Will Summers.
1654. Owen, Doctr. Saint’s Persev., Pref. C j. The supposititiousness of these Epistles.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 31. Unable to penetrate so far Southward as … River Nilus springs: albeit, supposititiously he derives it from the Lunæ montes.
1695. Whether Preserv. Protest. Relig. was Motive Revol., 39. The Supposititiousness of the Prince of Wales.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 63. Dr. Raynolds … discover’d the Supposititiousness of the Book, De Vita Prophetarum, Father’d by the Papists upon Epiphanius.
1859. Sala, Gas-light & D., ix. 108. Some terrible Dartford or Hounslow explosion, by which his limbs were (supposititiously) blown off.
1870. Baring-Gould, Orig. Relig. Belief (1871), I. 343. Faculties actually or supposititiously inferior to other faculties.
