adulterine

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See also: adultérine

English

Etymology

From Latin adulterīnus.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əˈdʌltəɹaɪn/
  • (US) enPR: ə-dŭlʹtə-rīn, IPA(key): /əˈdʌltəɹaɪn/ or enPR: ə-dŭlʹtə-rēn, IPA(key): /əˈdʌltəɹiːn/

Adjective

adulterine (comparative more adulterine, superlative most adulterine)

  1. Spurious; due to adulteration.
    • 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 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.
  2. Born of adultery.
  3. Pertaining to adultery.
  4. Illegal; unlicensed.
    • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations:
      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 []

Noun

adulterine (plural adulterines)

  1. (rare) One born of an adulterous union.

Usage notes

See also

Italian

Adjective

adulterine

  1. feminine plural of adulterino

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

adulterīne

  1. vocative masculine singular of adulterīnus