spurious

English

WOTD – 27 November 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin spurius (“illegitimate, bastardly”), possibly related to sperno or from Etruscan.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊəɹiəs

Adjective

spurious (comparative more spurious, superlative most spurious)

1. False, not authentic, not genuine.

   His argument was spurious and had no validity.

   • 2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems'”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-07-20:

     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.

   • 2019 July 19, Noah Kulwin, “Democrats Fail the Left, Once Again”, in Jewish Currents‎^[2], archived from the original on 2023-04-26:

     [Ilhan] Omar was left twisting in the wind earlier this year after facing spurious charges of antisemitism, a display of Democratic cowardice co-signed by Chelsea Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and most every other Democrat with a congressional leadership position.

2. Extraneous, stray; not relevant or wanted.

   I tried to concentrate on the matter in hand, but spurious thoughts kept intruding.

   Spurious emissions from the wireless mast were causing nearby electrical equipment to go haywire.

3. (archaic) Bastardly, illegitimate.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 29, lines 389-392:

     […] who alſo in her prime of love,
     Spouſal embraces, vitiated with Gold,
     Though offer’d only, by the ſent conceiv’d
     Her ſpurious firſt-born; Treaſon againſt me?

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “false”): genuine, representative

Derived terms

• nonspurious
• spuriosity
• spurious diphthong
• spurious infection
• spurious language
• spuriously
• spuriousness
• unspurious

 

Collocations

Nouns often used with "spurious"

correlation, result, claim, relationship, signal, model, regression, oscillation, effect, emission, article, work, writing, issue, coin, imitation, profundity, reasoning, justification, offspring

Translations

false

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

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

• Dutch: vals (nl)
• Estonian: võlts
• Finnish: väärennetty (fi), väärä (fi), epäaito (fi)
• French: faux (fr), trompeur (fr)
• German: unecht (de), gefälscht (de), falsch (de)
• Greek: πλαστός (el) (plastós), κίβδηλος (el) (kívdilos)

  Ancient: πλαστός (plastós), νόθος (nóthos)

• Hindi: मिथ्या (hi) (mithyā)
• Hungarian: hamis (hu)
• Icelandic: óekta, falskur, falsaður, 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)
• Latin: reprobus
• Maori: tipatipa
• Norwegian: falsk (no), uekte
• Persian: مجعول (fa) (maj'ul)
• Polish: fałszywy (pl), nieprawdziwy (pl), nieautentyczny (pl), podrobiony (pl)
• Portuguese: espúrio (pt)
• Russian: ло́жный (ru) (lóžnyj), подде́льный (ru) (poddélʹnyj), фальши́вый (ru) (falʹšívyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: meallta, mealltach
• Spanish: espurio (es), falso (es), mentira (es)
• Swedish: falsk (sv), förfalskad (sv), oäkta (sv)

extraneous; stray; not relevant or wanted

• German: herumirrend (de), beiläufig (de), ungewollt (de), nicht erwünscht
• Hungarian: kósza (hu)

illegitimate

• Bulgarian: незаконнороден (nezakonnoroden)
• Catalan: espuri (ca), bastard (ca)
• Dutch: onwettelijk (nl)
• German: unehelich (de)
• Greek: νόθος (el) m (nóthos)

  Ancient: νόθος (nóthos)

• Icelandic: óskilgetinn
• Portuguese: espúrio (pt)
• Russian: внебра́чный (ru) (vnebráčnyj), незаконноро́жденный (ru) (nezakonnoróždennyj)
• Spanish: espurio (es), ilegítimo (es)
• Swedish: oäkta (sv)

See also

• specious

Further reading

• “spurious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “spurious”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “spurious”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “spurious”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “spurious” (US) / “spurious” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• spurious in Britannica Dictionary
• "spurious" in WordNet 3.1, Princeton University, 2011.