adulterine means spurious; due to adulteration. It carries an Arena rating of 1494, earned across 24 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, adulterine ranks #1,135 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,161 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #2,139 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,459 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
adulterine is pronounced /əˈdʌltəɹaɪn/.
Why “adulterine” is a great word
ADULTERINE — [Adjective, Noun] Spurious or counterfeit; or, specifically, something (especially a child) born of an adulterous union. From the Latin adulterīnus, from adulter ("adulterer, counterfeiter") + -īnus (adjectival suffix). First attested in English in the mid-16th century. Unlike "spurious" (which broadly denotes inauthenticity) or "bastard" (which signifies general illegitimacy), adulterine carries the precise, tarnished weight of a violation within a sworn bond. It is the coin that rings hollow against the merchant's plate, the document with a subtly mismatched seal, and the heir whose very existence undermines a dynasty’s proclaimed lineage—the quiet, permanent scar where trust was most expected.
Etymology
From Latin adulterīnus.
adj
- Spurious; due to adulteration.e.g.“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.” — 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section
- Born of adultery.
- Pertaining to adultery.
- Illegal; unlicensed.e.g.“when any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter , such adulterine guilds , as they were called , were not always disfranchised[…]” — 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
noun
- One born of an adulterous union.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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