different between adulterate vs spurious

English

Etymology

From Latin adulter?tus (“(adjective) adulterated; of mixed descent; (verb) adulterated, corrupted, defiled, polluted; committed adultery with; (figuratively) counterfeited, falsified”) + English -ate (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘having the specified thing’, and verbs with the sense ‘acting in the specified manner’). Adulter?tus is the perfect passive participle of adulter? (“to adulterate, corrupt, defile, pollute; to commit adultery with; (figuratively) to counterfeit, falsify”) + -?tus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the possession of a thing or a quality, from nouns); adulter? is derived from ad- (prefix intensifying the action of verbs) + alter? (“to alter, change”) (from alter (“the other”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?el- (“beyond; other”) + *-teros (suffix forming contrastive or oppositional adjectives)) + -? (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).

Pronunciation

• Adjective:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??d?lt???t/
• • (General American) IPA^(key): /??d?lt?r?t/, [-?d?l-]
• Verb:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??d?lt??e?t/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /??d?lt???e?t/, [-?d?l-]
• Hyphenation: adul?ter?ate

Adjective

adulterate (comparative more adulterate, superlative most adulterate) (archaic, literary)

1. Corrupted or made impure by being mixed with something else; adulterated. [common in the 16th and 17th c.]
2. Tending to commit adultery; relating to or being the product of adultery; adulterous. [common in the 16th and 17th c.]

Derived terms

• adulterateness

Translations

Verb

adulterate (third-person singular simple present adulterates, present participle adulterating, simple past and past participle adulterated)

1. (transitive) To corrupt, to debase (someone or something).
2. (transitive) To make less valuable or spoil (something) by adding impurities or other substances.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) adulter, debase
3. (transitive, archaic) To commit adultery with (someone).

   Synonym: (obsolete) adulter

4. (transitive, archaic) To defile (someone) by adultery.
5. (intransitive, also figuratively, archaic) To commit adultery.

Conjugation

Related terms

Translations

References

Further reading

• adulterant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “adulterate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Italian

Verb

adulterate

1. second-person plural present indicative of adulterare
2. second-person plural imperative of adulterare
3. feminine plural of adulterato

Latin

Verb

adulter?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of adulter?

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?spj??.?i.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?spj?.?i.?s/, /?sp?.?i.?s/, /?spj?.?i.?s/
• Rhymes: -???i?s

Adjective

spurious (comparative more spurious, superlative most spurious)

1. False, not authentic, not genuine.

   His argument was spurious and had no validity.

   • 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. 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

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

• (false): genuine, representative

Derived terms

• spuriosity
• spuriously
• spuriousness

Translations

See also

• specious