spurious

WOTD – 27 November 2007

English

Etymology

From Late Latin spurius (“illegitimate, bastardly”), from spurcus (“foul, base, low”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈspjʊə.ɹi.əs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈspjʊ.ɹi.əs/, /ˈspjɔ.ɹi.əs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊəɹiəs

Adjective

spurious (comparative more spurious, superlative most spurious)

1. false, not authentic, not genuine
   • 2013, Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' (in The Guardian, 13 September 2013)[1]

     We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level. These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information.

2. (archaic) bastardly, illegitimate
   • Milton

     her spurious firstborn

Synonyms

• (false): counterfeit, fake, false, bogus
• See also Wikisaurus:fake
• See also Wikisaurus:illegitimate

Antonyms

• (false): genuine, representative

Derived terms

• spuriously
• spuriousness

Translations

false

• Afrikaans: vals
• Bulgarian: фалшив (bg) (falšív)
• Catalan: espuri, fals (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 虛假的 (zh), 虚假的 (zh) (xūjiǎ de), 偽造的 (zh), 伪造的 (zh) (wěizào de)

• Dutch: vals (nl)
• Estonian: võlts
• Finnish: väärennetty, väärä (fi)
• French: faux (fr)
• German: unecht
• Hungarian: hamis (hu)
• Icelandic: óekta m, falskur m, falsaður m, tál-, fals-

• Indonesian: palsu (id), tiruan (id)
• Japanese: にせ物の (にせものの, nisemono no), 疑似の (ja) (ぎじの, giji no)
• Korean: 거짓의 (ko) (geojis-ui), 속임수의 (ko) (sogimsu-ui), 위조된 (ko) (wijo-doen)
• Norwegian: falsk (no), uekte
• Polish: fałszywy (pl), nieprawdziwy (pl), nieautentyczny, podrobiony
• Portuguese: espúrio (pt) m
• Russian: ложный (ru) (lóžnyj), поддельный (ru) m (poddélʼnyj), фальшивый (ru) (falʹšívyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: meallta, mealltach
• Spanish: espurio (es), falso (es), mentira (es)
• Swedish: falsk (sv), förfalskad (sv), oäkta (sv)

illegitimate

• Catalan: espuri, bastard
• Icelandic: óskilgetinn m
• Portuguese: espúrio (pt) m

• Russian: внебрачный (ru) m (vnebráčnyj), незаконнорожденный (ru) m (nezakonnoróždennyj)
• Swedish: oäkta (sv)