adulterine
See also: adultérine
English
Etymology
From Latin adulterinus.
Pronunciation
Adjective
adulterine (comparative more adulterine, superlative most adulterine)
- Spurious; due to adulteration.
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection i:
- a knave apothecary, that administers the physick, and makes the medicine, may do infinite harm, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine druggs, bad mixtures, quid pro quo, &c.
-
- Born of adultery.
- Pertaining to adultery.
- Illegal; unlicensed.
- Adam Smith
- When any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter, such were called adulterine guilds.
- Adam Smith
Usage notes
- An adulterine is not the same as a bastard, which is a person born out of wedlock.
Italian
Latin
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