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Meretricious vs Spurious - What's the difference?

meretricious | spurious |

As adjectives the difference between meretricious and spurious

is that meretricious is (obsolete) of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution while spurious is false, not authentic, not genuine.

meretricious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.
  • Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.
  • * , chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}
  • * 2006 , (Clive James), North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 164:
  • When I lifted my eyes from the page, there was none of the meretricious argument London always offers that the sole real purpose in life is to hustle for a buck.

    Synonyms

    * (tastelessly showy) brassy, cheap, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy

    spurious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • false, not authentic, not genuine
  • * 2013 , Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems''' (in ''The Guardian , 13 September 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/sep/13/russell-brand-gq-awards-hugo-boss]
  • We witness that there is a relationship between government, media and industry that is evident even at this most spurious and superficial level. These three institutions support one another. We know that however cool a media outlet may purport to be, their primary loyalty is to their corporate backers. We know also that you cannot criticise the corporate backers openly without censorship and subsequent manipulation of this information.
  • (archaic) bastardly, illegitimate
  • * Milton
  • her spurious firstborn

    Synonyms

    * (false) counterfeit, fake, false, bogus * See also * See also

    Antonyms

    * (false) genuine, representative

    Derived terms

    * spuriously * spuriousness