Literary notes about spurious (AI summary)
In literature, the term spurious is employed to denote that which lacks authenticity or genuine origin. It is used to cast doubt on the legitimacy of texts or attributed ideas, suggesting a false or manufactured quality. For instance, historians and critics denounce documents or epistles as spurious when their authorship or content appears doubtful ([1], [2], [3]), and philosophers extend the term to ideas and arguments that are built on questionable foundations ([4], [5]). The word also contributes to literary critique, marking passages or stylistic imitations as unworthy of true merit ([6], [7], [8]), illustrating how the notion of spuriousness challenges both historical veracity and aesthetic sincerity in writing.
- General character of the spurious epistle.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - c. 15, p. 246) supplies us with a national tradition, and a spurious letter.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - 317-321. Appendix (3).—Spurious Letters of Napoleon to Josephine.
— from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 by Emperor of the French Napoleon I - illegitimate, bastard, spurious, supposititious, false; usurped.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - The universality and necessity of the rule or law would be perfectly spurious attributes of it.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - "Glittering generalities" are inert because they are spurious.
— from How We Think by John Dewey - The spurious prudence, making the senses final, is the god of sots and cowards, and is the subject of all comedy.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - But there was something spurious about his domesticity, Ursula did not like him any more.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence
