Supposed

ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Believed or thought to exist, or to be what the sb. denotes, but uncertainly or erroneously.

1582.  N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. i. 2 b. This supposed Presbiter Ioan.

1593.  Shaks., Lucr., 455. The sight which makes supposed terror trew.

a. 1653.  Gouge, Comm. Heb. vii. 15 (1655), 188. When a supposed able man … faileth in his estate.

1681.  Flavel, Meth. Grace, xxviii. 401. Hezekiah, upon his supposed death-bed.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxiii. § 2. The supposed, but unknown, support of those qualities we find existing.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxix. (1787), III. 111. Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the supposed insult.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xxxv. Say, that in a moment of infatuation, moved by supposed beauty,… I gave my hand to this Amy Robsart.

1859.  Mill, Liberty, i. 12. Those … classes … to whose real or supposed interests democracy is adverse.

1905.  R. Bagot, Passport, vii. 66. The wines were execrable—execrable!—and the man who poured them out told us their supposed dates.

  absol.  1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., II. iv. 97. You must lay downe the treasures of your body, To this suppos’d.

  † b.  Believed (with assurance), admitted. Obs.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 21. Curiosities … discussed by men of most supposed ability.

  † 2.  ‘Put on,’ feigned, pretended, counterfeit. Obs.

1566.  Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. xxiii. 44 b. It is no pure and naturall affection, but rather a suposed and Ciuile loue.

1592.  Greene, Conny Catch., III. 38. He cuts the ring from the purse, and by his supposed man (rounding him in the eare) sends it to the plot-layer of this knauerie.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. iv. 61. Let the supposed Fairies pinch him.

a. 1641.  Mountagu, Acts & Mon., i. (1642), 11. The onely true God,… no supposed, false, subintroducted God or Gods.

1664.  Jer. Taylor, Dissuas. Popery, II. I. § 3. The traditions … were … Apocryphal, forg’d, and suppos’d.

  † b.  Supposititious. Obs.

1652.  J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, I. 11. Not well pleased to see that a supposed child should reap, before the season, that which she desired to preserve in their owne family.

1787.  Charlotte Smith, Romance Real Life, I. 175. To name a guardian for the supposed child.

  † 3.  Assumed as a premiss: in quot. absol.

1697.  trans. Burgersdicius’ Logic, II. vi. 20. A Syllogism is a Speech in which something being suppos’d, something different from that suppos’d, by Reason of the Suppos’d, does of Necessity follow.

  † 4.  Placed beneath; underlying. Obs. rare^–1.

1608.  Topsell, Serpents, 114. The Chamælion … doth not change his owne colour into a supposed colour, but when it is oppressed with feare or griefe.

  † 5.  Mus. Applied to a note added or introduced below the notes of a chord, or to an upper note of a chord when used as the lowest note (supposed bass) instead of the fundamental bass or ‘root,’ i.e., to the lowest note of an ‘inversion’ of the chord; hence applied to the harmony of an ‘inversion.’ Also applied to a ‘discord’ introduced as a passing-note. (Cf. SUPPOSITION 5.) Obs.

1797.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVIII. 83/2. s.v. Supposition, Concords by supposition are those where the continued bass adds or supposes a new sound below the fundamental bass…. Of these … there are three sorts,… the first, when the added sound is a third below…. The second … when the supposed sound is a fifth below…. The third … where the supposed sound is below a concord of the diminished seventh.

1845.  Encycl. Metrop., V. 734. Every bass note which has a sixth upon it is a supposed bass. Ibid., 735. The supposed harmony of the third of the key is … borrowed from the fundamental harmony of the key note. Ibid., 755. The supposed discord is on the second accented part of the bar.