adulterine

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

• An adulterine is not the same as a bastard, which is a person born out of wedlock.

See also

• bastard
• gandermooner
• uzzard
• wetewold

 

Italian

Adjective

adulterine

1. feminine plural of adulterino

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /a.dul.teˈriː.ne/, [äd̪ʊɫ̪t̪ɛˈriːnɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a.dul.teˈri.ne/, [äd̪ul̪t̪eˈriːne]

Adjective

adulterīne

1. vocative masculine singular of adulterīnus