Pl. supposita. [Scholastic L., neut. sing., used subst., of suppositus, p. pple. of suppōnĕre to SUPPONE.]
† 1. Metaph. = SUPPOSITE sb. 1. Obs.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xvii. 148. Some of the Rabbines … conceived the first man an Hermaphrodite; and Marcus Leo … in some sense hath allowed it, affirming that Adam in one suppositum without division, contained both male and female.
1648. Estwick, Treat. Holy Ghost, 36. The person is the very suppositum, in which the nature subsists.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 259. Can you know the suppositum, even the subject and accident by that Accident alone?
1719. Waterland, Vind. Christ’s Divinity, xxv. 387. The Father is Creator, but the Son a Creature; and therefore they cannot be One and the same Hypostasis, or Suppositum.
2. Logic. a. Something supposed or assumed, an assumption. b. pl. The things or objects denoted by a given term.
1833. W. H. Gillespie, Argum. Being & Attrib. God, I. I. i. (1872), 32. The preliminary fatal objection to such supposita.
1889. Cent. Dict., s.v. Extension, The extension [of a term] is also called the supposita, the subjective parts,… the scope,… and the breadth.
