supposititious

Adjective

supposititious (comparative more supposititious, superlative most supposititious)

1. (obsolete) Spurious; substituted for the genuine, counterfeit; fake.
   • [...] the said pretended Testament was supposititious, & contriued by such as meant to defraud both the heires female of the said king Henrie the 8. as well as these of his eldest sister [...]1600, John Colville, The Palinod of Iohn Coluill, Edinburgh
   • But it may bee some will here obiect and say; that the Haire, and Loue-lockes which they weare, are supposititious, false, and counterfeit, and not their owne: therefore they violate no Law of God, nor Nature, since the long Haire they vse, is but borrowed, and aduenticious, their owne being short...1628, William Prynne, The Unlovelinesse of Love-Lockes, London, page 16
2. (obsolete) Imaginary; fictitious, pretended to exist.
   • His good sense had pointed out to him the artifices of the monks, and the gross absurdity of their miracles, wonders, and supposititious reliques.1796, Matthew Lewis, The Monk, Folio Society, published 1985, page 244
   • … we discover in all men a disposition to look with reverence upon superiority, whether real or supposititious.1836, Edgar Allan Poe, Review of Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay, and other Poems and Fitz-Greene Halleck, Alnwick Castle, with other Poems in Southern Literary Messenger, Volume 2, No. 5, April...
3. (archaic) Supposed or hypothetical.
   • You might hope to get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George Gradgrind, or Augustus Gradgrind, or John Gradgrind, or Joseph Gradgrind (all supposititious, non-existent persons), but into the head of Thomas Gradgrind—no, sir!1854, Charles Dickens, “Chapter 2”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC
   • Far more extravagant (insanior) yet is the idea of the whirling of the supposititious primum mobile, which is still higher, deeper, more immeasurable; and yet this incomprehensible primum mobile would have to be of matter, of enormous altitude, and far surpassing all the creation below in mass, for...1893, William Gilbert, “Of the Daily Magnetic Revolution of the Globes, as against the Time-honored Opinion of a Primum Mobile: A Probable Hypothesis”, in P[aul] Fleury Mottelay, transl., William...