a. [f. L. spuri-us illegitimate, false. Cf. It. spurio, Sp. espurio.]
1. Of persons: Begot or born out of wedlock; illegitimate, bastard, adulterous.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., VI. i. But can it be aught but a spurious seed That grows so rife in such unlikely speed?
1604. T. Wright, Passions, 166. Commonly such spurious ympes [bastards] follow the steppes of their bad parents.
1635. Quarles, Embl., I. v. Froth-born Venus and her brat, With all that spurious brood young Iove begat.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 26. A spurious Issue may by silence and patience be rendred legitimate.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Rom. Hist. (1827), III. 66. All children that were spurious and illegitimate were exempted from the same duty.
1768. Walpole, Hist. Doubts, 77. Henry came of the spurious stock of John of Gaunt.
1815. Southey, Roderick, VI. 89. The spurious race Whom in unhappy hour Favila’s wife Brought forth for Spain.
1885. Law Rep., 14 Q. B. Div. 792. Adultery by the wife followed by the birth of a spurious child.
absol. 1628–30. Bp. Hacket, in Plume, Life (1865), 30. The Lutherans … baptized none at home but the sick and the spurious.
b. fig. or in fig. context.
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, I. ii. 175. Pert Gallus slily slips along to wage Tilting encounters with some spurious seed Of marrow pies, and yawning Oysters breede.
1608. D. T., Ess. Pol. & Mor., 89. That love is but the spurious, and adulterate issue of a conscious and guilty feare.
1665. Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., 73. ’Tis doubtful whither they are not the spurious issue of some more modern Author.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, i. § 2. 99. In those regions the offspring of fancy is legitimate, but in philosophy it is all spurious.
c. Characterized by bastardy or illegitimacy.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1851), II, 707/2. Aridæus … was of spurious birth.
1838. Lytton, Calderon, i. 64. He knew not for what end Calderon had forced upon him the honours of spurious parentship.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, viii. 203. Edmond Bonner was of obscure, according to his enemies…, of spurious birth, the son of a priest.
d. Supposititious. rare.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 214. I cannot help surmising, that my brother … has resolved to produce to the world a spurious child as his own.
2. Having an illegitimate or irregular origin; not properly qualified or constituted.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, V. iii. Teach thy incubus to poetize; And throw abroad thy spurious snotteries, vpon that puft-vp lumpe of barmy froth.
1633. Massinger, Guardian, II. ii. I apprehend what thou wouldst say: I want all As means to quench the spurious fire that burns here.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 2. That Providence should so direct those spurious and imperfect animals, and but of yesterdays being,… to fear and avoid those who are enemies and prey upon them.
1699. Pomfret, On a Marriage, 21. Achates’ choice … from no spurious passion came, But was the product of a noble flame.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xvii. (1787), II. 18. That a spurious race of strangers and plebeians was left to possess the solitude of the ancient capital.
Comb. 1668. H. More, Div. Dial., IV. xxxiii. (1713), 384. An Adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign, and a spurious-hearted Christian after a Prophecy.
3. Superficially resembling or simulating, but lacking the genuine character or qualities of, something; not true or genuine; false, sham, counterfeit: a. Of material things.
Freq. in more or less specific use in Anat., Bot., etc.
1615. H. Crooke, Body of Man, 394. They are diuided into true or legitimate, & bastard or spurious ribs.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 107. Making them a kind of Spurious Planets.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., IV. xvii. 353. The … bastard Ribs … do stick one to the other,… the last excepted, which is the least, and sticks to none, and therefore ’tis truly spurious.
1782. Cowper, Self-diffidence, 37. Spurious gems our hopes entice, While we scorn the pearl of price.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), II. 57. Carbon bituminated, impregnated with a notable proportion of stony matter. Spurious Coal.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 284. There are several spurious kinds of berries, whose pulp is not properly a part of the fruit, but originates from some other organ.
1827. O. W. Roberts, Voy. Centr. Amer., 47. Traders … are often cheated, by having a kind of spurious, or bastard wood without dye, imposed upon them.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 123. False or spurious dissepiments occur occasionally both in compound and simple ovaries.
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 52. The spurious gun may be either a gun represented as being of a quality it is not, or as a production of a maker other than the real one.
b. Of qualities, conditions, etc.
1646. Maxwell, Burden of Issachar, 28. This scourge, which is gilded with the specious, but spurious compellation of a glorious, thorow, second Reformation.
1658. T. Wall, Charac. Enemies Ch., 6. When this comes into competition that spurious concord which is knit by secular respects … is suddenly overthrown.
1713. Swift, Cadenus & Vanessa, Wks. 1751, III. II. 8. That spurious virtue in a maid, A virtue but at second-hand.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, II. i. 211. The City known to us under the spurious name of Algiers.
1791. Burke, Lett. Member Nat. Assembly, Wks. I. 483. Statesmen … exist by every thing which is spurious, fictitious, and false.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 205. It is only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive.
1863. Whyte-Melville, Gladiators, III. 152. He could lash himself into a spurious anger.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 483. There appear to be three pleasures, one genuine and two spurious.
c. In the specific names of animals, birds, etc.
1781. Pennant, Hist. Quad., II. 37. In the southern and western provinces of Russia is a mixed breed of hares, between this and the common species. [marg.] Spurious [Hare].
1787. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, Suppl. I. 214. The Wood Grous, as well as the Spurious Grous, were extant in Scotland.
1801. Shaw, Gen. Zool., II. II. 476. Spurious Narwhal (Monodon Spurius), a species most allied to the Narwhal, but not perhaps, strictly speaking, of the same genus.
1889. Maiden, Usef. Pl., 579. Notelæa ligustrina,… ‘Spurious Olive.’
d. In medical or pathological use.
1693. trans. Blancard’s Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Spurii Morbi, as Spurious fevers, a Pleurisie, a Bastard Quinsie, and the like.
1790. Med. Comm., II. 455. A woman in labour is to be treated as if suffering spurious pains, so long as the os uteri … remains … close.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 69. That sort of cow-pock, which had all the characteristics of the spurious kind.
1860. Tanner, Pregnancy, 126. Spurious pregnancy is by no means an unfrequent disorder.
1877. Roberts, Handbk. Med., I. 29. It is necessary to mention certain morbid conditions which are known as spurious dropsies.
4. Of a writing, etc.: Not really proceeding from its reputed origin, source or author; not genuine or authentic; forged.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 43. Authors and writings, either justly suspected, or evidently spurious and counterfeit.
1682. Burnet, Rights Princes, ii. 72. I insist not on the spurious Treatises that are ascribed to him.
a. 1719. Addison, Evid. Chr. Relig., I. vii. As for the spurious Acts of Pilate, now extant.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., i. 2. A situation in which it is more difficult to distinguish spurious from genuine writings.
1847. Emerson, Repres. Men, Plato. The vexed question concerning his reputed works—what are genuine, what spurious.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), II. App. 579. The writ is clearly spurious, but it is one of those cases in which a spurious document proves something.
b. Similarly of words or passages.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 155. Though the place be most express for Infant Baptism,… yet it is either spurious or interpolate.
1699. Burnet, 39 Articles, vi. (1700), 79. That he should be able to distinguish what is Genuine in them from what is Spurious.
1759. Dilworth, Pope, 91. The lines, or even the words supposed to be spurious.
1861. Paley, Æschylus, Choeph. (ed. 2), 519, note. The words καὶ τὸν νύχιον had been marked as spurious in a former edition of this play.
5. Characterized by spuriousness or falseness.
c. 1840. De Quincey, Bentley, Wks. 1859, VII. 41. When instances of spurious pretensions came in his way.
1860. W. G. Ward, Nat. & Grace, I. 36. We may distinguish these true primary premisses from spurious counterfeits.
1892. Photogr. Ann., II. p. ci. Messrs. … caution buyers against Spurious Imitations of their well-known Apparatus.
