different between specious vs profitless

English

From Latin speci?sus (“good-looking”).

specious (comparative more specious, superlative most specious)

Seemingly well-reasoned, plausible or true, but actually fallacious.
Synonyms: fallacious, insincere
- 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:
  now to the discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence, but that, for the most part, either specious rather than solid, or to his cause nothing pertinent.
Employing fallacious but deceptively plausible arguments; deceitful.
- 1829, William Phelan, Mortimer O'Sullivan, Ireland: A digest taken before Select Committees of the two Houses of Parliament, appointed to inquire into the State of Ireland, 1824—25, in The Christian Review and Clerical Magazine, Volume III, page 472,
  But a third cause of the delusion is, that the Church of Rome has become more specious and deceitful than before the Reformation.
Having an attractive appearance intended to generate a favorable response; deceptively attractive.
Synonyms: meretricious, pretextual
- 1760, William Warburton, The Lord Bishop of Gloucester's Sermon Preached Before the Right Honourable the House of Lords, January 30, 1760, page 19,
  And could any thing be more ?pecious, or more equal, than that fair di?tribution of power and profit, which men called the NEW MODEL?
- 1788, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 59
  This argument, though specious, will not, upon examination, be found solid.
(obsolete) Beautiful, pleasing to look at.

profit +? -less

profitless (comparative more profitless, superlative most profitless)

not yielding profit
- 1600, Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, [1]:
  I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
  Which falls into mine ears as profitless
  As water in a sieve...

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