ostensibleadj.n.

Brit.

/ɒˈstɛnsᵻbl/, U.S.

/əˈstɛnsəb(ə)l/

Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French ostensible.

Etymology: < French ostensible able to be shown (1717 or earlier) < classical Latin ostens- , past participial stem of ostendere ostend v.¹ + French -ible -ible suffix. Compare post-classical Latin ostensibilis (early 12th cent., c1300 in British sources).

A. adj.

†a. Able to be shown or exhibited; presentable. Also (esp. of a letter): intended to be shown to people other than the recipient. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > [adjective] > shown > able to be

ostensible1734

showable1813

exhibitablea1834

1734 W. Pulteney Politicks on both Sides 15 They have since made a Discovery that even their Apprehensions were groundless, and that there never were any such Engagements, either ostensible, or non-ostensible.

1743 Duke of Newcastle Let. 26 July in Corr. Dukes of Richmond & Newcastle (1984) 112 I hope you will be satisfied with what I have wrote in my other Letters, which is an ostensible one, in answer to your Letter, and that from the Officers of the Blue Regiment.

1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. iii. 82 [Rubens] was called to Paris by Mary de' Medici, and painted the ostensible history of her life in the Luxemburgh.

1783 Ld. Temple Let. 2 Apr. in Duke of Buckingham Mem. Court & Cabinets George III (1853) I. 226 I wish you to write me an ostensible letter..upon the conduct of the Portuguese.

1798 E. H. Bay Rep. Cases Superior Courts S.-Carolina 92 Burke, the only ostensible person in the country, Phephoe having gone off; and Baker's estate not sufficient to make good the loss.

a1805 A. Carlyle Autobiogr. (1860) i. 31 He took great pains to make them (especially the first, for the second was hardly ostensible) appear among his best scholars.

1828 J. Bentham Wks. (1843) X. 591 You should..send me two letters—one confidential, another ostensible.

b. That presents itself to or is open to view; visible, noticeable; conspicuous, ostentatious. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > pride > ostentation > [adjective]

rankOE

peacockly?a1425

ruffling1531

garish1545

peacockish1551

peacock-like1576

ostentatious1590

fastuous?1591

flaring1593

flantitanting1596

ostentive1599

ostentative1601

showful1607

flourishable1614

flourishing1616

flaunting1624

ostentous1624

ostentatory1638

swasha1640

fanfaron1670

paradeful1748

ostensible1782

epideictic1790

fandangous1797

flashy1801

affiché1818

show-off1818

splashing1820

flaunty1825

splash-and-dash1830

pretentious1832

flash1836

splashy1836

pretenceful1841

swanky1842

peacocky1844

fantysheeny1847

splurgy1852

cheesy1858

pretensivea1868

duchessy1870

swagger1879

lavish1882

splurging1884

show-offy1890

razzmatazz1900

show-offish1903

whoop-de-do1904

Ritz1908

split-arse1917

swanking1918

ritzy1919

fantoosh1920

knock-me-down1922

showboating1936

showboat1939

hellzapoppin'1945

zazzy1961

glitzy1966

sploshy1966

zhuzhy1968

noncy1989

bling1999

society > communication > manifestation > manifestness > openness or unconcealedness > [adjective]

openlyeOE

underna900

openeOE

utterly12..

unhida1300

perta1325

apert1330

nakeda1382

public1394

patenta1398

foreign?c1400

overtc1400

unrecovered1433

publicalc1450

open-visageda1513

bare1526

uncloaked1539

subject1556

uncovered1577

unmasked1590

facely1593

undisguised1598

female1602

unveiled1606

unshrouded1610

barefaceda1616

disclouded1615

unhiddena1616

broad-faced1643

with full miena1657

undissembled1671

frank1752

bald-faced1761

unconfidential1772

ostensible1782

unglossed1802

undisguising1813

unvisored1827

unconcealed1839

disprivacied1848

disguiseless1850

bald1854

unobscured1879

visible1885

open door1898

above ground1976

1782 W. Hastings Let. 11 Mar. in J. Barrow Some Acct. Public Life Earl of Macartney (1807) I. 144 Were we to adopt the ostensible and artificial language of that prudence which [etc.].

1803 Marquess Wellesley Let. 26 June in Select. Despatches (1877) 302 The most direct and even ostensible interposition of the British authority.

1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. x. ii. 35 He has been in an ostensible situation..and his father ought to be buried with all the forms of state.

1828 Ld. Grenville Sinking Fund 29 Which..can exhibit to us only the outward and ostensible workings of this complicated mechanism.

1852 W. R. Wilde Irish Pop. Superstitions iv. 121 In the islands of the extreme west, except from sheer old age, or some very ostensible cause, no-one is ever believed to ‘die all out’.

1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd II. vi. 75 Man, even to himself, is a crypto-graphic page, having an ostensible writing, and another beneath the lines.

1880 C. H. H. Parry in G. Grove Dict. Music I. 676 Otherwise they [sc. the chords] would have no notes in common and the connection between them harmonically would not be ostensible.

1904 O. Airy Charles II 72 In July she was arrested and placed in the Tower, but was shortly sent back to Flanders as a person without ostensible means of subsistence.

1988 P. Ackroyd T. S. Eliot 244 Murder in the Cathedral..contained too much obvious ‘poetry’, and in the new play he wanted to create a more flexible and less ostensible verse line.

2. Declared, avowed, professed; presented (esp. untruthfully or misleadingly) as actual; stated or appearing to be genuine, but not necessarily so. Frequently implicitly or explicitly opposed to actual or real.Now the principal sense.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > [adjective]

fainta1340

counterfeit1393

pretense1395

feinta1400

feigned1413

disguisyc1430

colourable1433

pretending1434

simulate1435

dissimuled1475

simulative1490

coloureda1500

dissimulate?a1500

simuled1526

colorate1528

dissembled1539

mock1548

devised1552

pretended?1553

artificial1564

supposed1566

counterfeited1569

supposing?1574

affecteda1586

pretensive1607

false1609

supposite1611

simulara1616

simulatory1618

simulated1622

put-ona1625

ironic1631

ironical1646

devisable1659

pretensional1659

pretenced1660

pretensory1663

vizarded1663

shammed?c1677

sham1681

faux1684

fictitious1739

ostensible1762

made-up1773

mala fide1808

assumed1813

semblative1814

fictioned1820

pretextual1837

pseudo1854

fictive1855

schlenter1881

faked1890

phoney1893

phantom1897

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > semblance, outward show > [adjective]

fairOE

seeming1340

feignedc1374

colourablea1400

whitea1413

coloured?c1425

satiablec1487

provable1588

specious1611

well-seeminga1616

superficial1616

meretricious1633

glosseda1640

probable1639

spurious1646

fucatious1654

ostensible1762

well-looking1811

semblant1840

the mind > will > motivation > [adjective] > of motives or purposes: ostensible

ostensive1782

ostensible1847

1762 [implied in: H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. ii. 55 He was even employed in the treaty of marriage, though ostensibly acting only in the character of a painter. (at ostensibly adv. 1)].

1771 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. liv. 240 The best of princes is not displeased with the abuse, which he sees thrown upon his ostensible ministers.

1786 E. Burke Articles of Charge against W. Hastings iv. 64 A party of British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the British resident in the real command.

1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 269 There will be less that is ostensible and more that is genuine, as they grow older.

1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. x. 160 My ostensible errand on this occasion was to get measured for a pair of shoes.

1897 W. Walsh Secret Hist. Oxf. Movement x. 342 The ostensible reason for restoring the Reserved Sacrament is that it is then always ready to be given to the sick.

1943 M. Samuel tr. S. Asch Apostle ii. i. 224 Despite his ostensible attitude of indifference toward the plebs which had hailed him, Agrippa was pleased by the popular reception.

1992 Spy (N.Y.) May 14/2 One wonders if this ostensible pat on the back wasn't actually a sly, bitchy dig.

†B. n.

1. That which is shown or apparent; an ostensible reason or purpose; (concrete) an ostensible letter. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1765 W. Robertson Let. in Franklin Papers (1968) XII. 70 In order however to make the Thing go easily with our Senatus Academicus beg of him to write an Ostensible to me attesting the Literature and moral character of Mr. Stiles.

1801 L. Chester Federalism Triumphant i. i. 10 I intend to have the appointment of an attorney general, the ostensible of the office, is to settle public accounts.

1801 L. Chester Federalism Triumphant i. iii. 16 Their ostensible was, that they meant to elevate him as high as possible, to render his fall the more signal and terrible.

2. In plural. Ostensible matters. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > manifestation > [noun] > that which may be manifested

ostensibles1861

1861 J. Pycroft Agony Point (1862) xxiii. 231 When all these positive essentials and ostensibles were so respectably witnessed.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	ostensible
释义	ostensibleadj.n. Brit. /ɒˈstɛnsᵻbl/, U.S. /əˈstɛnsəb(ə)l/ Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French ostensible. Etymology: < French ostensible able to be shown (1717 or earlier) < classical Latin ostens- , past participial stem of ostendere ostend v.¹ + French -ible -ible suffix. Compare post-classical Latin ostensibilis (early 12th cent., c1300 in British sources). A. adj. 1. †a. Able to be shown or exhibited; presentable. Also (esp. of a letter): intended to be shown to people other than the recipient. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > [adjective] > shown > able to be ostensible1734 showable1813 exhibitablea1834 1734 W. Pulteney Politicks on both Sides 15 They have since made a Discovery that even their Apprehensions were groundless, and that there never were any such Engagements, either ostensible, or non-ostensible. 1743 Duke of Newcastle Let. 26 July in Corr. Dukes of Richmond & Newcastle (1984) 112 I hope you will be satisfied with what I have wrote in my other Letters, which is an ostensible one, in answer to your Letter, and that from the Officers of the Blue Regiment. 1762 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. iii. 82 [Rubens] was called to Paris by Mary de' Medici, and painted the ostensible history of her life in the Luxemburgh. 1783 Ld. Temple Let. 2 Apr. in Duke of Buckingham Mem. Court & Cabinets George III (1853) I. 226 I wish you to write me an ostensible letter..upon the conduct of the Portuguese. 1798 E. H. Bay Rep. Cases Superior Courts S.-Carolina 92 Burke, the only ostensible person in the country, Phephoe having gone off; and Baker's estate not sufficient to make good the loss. a1805 A. Carlyle Autobiogr. (1860) i. 31 He took great pains to make them (especially the first, for the second was hardly ostensible) appear among his best scholars. 1828 J. Bentham Wks. (1843) X. 591 You should..send me two letters—one confidential, another ostensible. b. That presents itself to or is open to view; visible, noticeable; conspicuous, ostentatious. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > ostentation > [adjective] rankOE peacockly?a1425 ruffling1531 garish1545 peacockish1551 peacock-like1576 ostentatious1590 fastuous?1591 flaring1593 flantitanting1596 ostentive1599 ostentative1601 showful1607 flourishable1614 flourishing1616 flaunting1624 ostentous1624 ostentatory1638 swasha1640 fanfaron1670 paradeful1748 ostensible1782 epideictic1790 fandangous1797 flashy1801 affiché1818 show-off1818 splashing1820 flaunty1825 splash-and-dash1830 pretentious1832 flash1836 splashy1836 pretenceful1841 swanky1842 peacocky1844 fantysheeny1847 splurgy1852 cheesy1858 pretensivea1868 duchessy1870 swagger1879 lavish1882 splurging1884 show-offy1890 razzmatazz1900 show-offish1903 whoop-de-do1904 Ritz1908 split-arse1917 swanking1918 ritzy1919 fantoosh1920 knock-me-down1922 showboating1936 showboat1939 hellzapoppin'1945 zazzy1961 glitzy1966 sploshy1966 zhuzhy1968 noncy1989 bling1999 society > communication > manifestation > manifestness > openness or unconcealedness > [adjective] openlyeOE underna900 openeOE utterly12.. unhida1300 perta1325 apert1330 nakeda1382 public1394 patenta1398 foreign?c1400 overtc1400 unrecovered1433 publicalc1450 open-visageda1513 bare1526 uncloaked1539 subject1556 uncovered1577 unmasked1590 facely1593 undisguised1598 female1602 unveiled1606 unshrouded1610 barefaceda1616 disclouded1615 unhiddena1616 broad-faced1643 with full miena1657 undissembled1671 frank1752 bald-faced1761 unconfidential1772 ostensible1782 unglossed1802 undisguising1813 unvisored1827 unconcealed1839 disprivacied1848 disguiseless1850 bald1854 unobscured1879 visible1885 open door1898 above ground1976 1782 W. Hastings Let. 11 Mar. in J. Barrow Some Acct. Public Life Earl of Macartney (1807) I. 144 Were we to adopt the ostensible and artificial language of that prudence which [etc.]. 1803 Marquess Wellesley Let. 26 June in Select. Despatches (1877) 302 The most direct and even ostensible interposition of the British authority. 1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas IV. x. ii. 35 He has been in an ostensible situation..and his father ought to be buried with all the forms of state. 1828 Ld. Grenville Sinking Fund 29 Which..can exhibit to us only the outward and ostensible workings of this complicated mechanism. 1852 W. R. Wilde Irish Pop. Superstitions iv. 121 In the islands of the extreme west, except from sheer old age, or some very ostensible cause, no-one is ever believed to ‘die all out’. 1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd II. vi. 75 Man, even to himself, is a crypto-graphic page, having an ostensible writing, and another beneath the lines. 1880 C. H. H. Parry in G. Grove Dict. Music I. 676 Otherwise they [sc. the chords] would have no notes in common and the connection between them harmonically would not be ostensible. 1904 O. Airy Charles II 72 In July she was arrested and placed in the Tower, but was shortly sent back to Flanders as a person without ostensible means of subsistence. 1988 P. Ackroyd T. S. Eliot 244 Murder in the Cathedral..contained too much obvious ‘poetry’, and in the new play he wanted to create a more flexible and less ostensible verse line. 2. Declared, avowed, professed; presented (esp. untruthfully or misleadingly) as actual; stated or appearing to be genuine, but not necessarily so. Frequently implicitly or explicitly opposed to actual or real.Now the principal sense. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > [adjective] fainta1340 counterfeit1393 pretense1395 feinta1400 feigned1413 disguisyc1430 colourable1433 pretending1434 simulate1435 dissimuled1475 simulative1490 coloureda1500 dissimulate?a1500 simuled1526 colorate1528 dissembled1539 mock1548 devised1552 pretended?1553 artificial1564 supposed1566 counterfeited1569 supposing?1574 affecteda1586 pretensive1607 false1609 supposite1611 simulara1616 simulatory1618 simulated1622 put-ona1625 ironic1631 ironical1646 devisable1659 pretensional1659 pretenced1660 pretensory1663 vizarded1663 shammed?c1677 sham1681 faux1684 fictitious1739 ostensible1762 made-up1773 mala fide1808 assumed1813 semblative1814 fictioned1820 pretextual1837 pseudo1854 fictive1855 schlenter1881 faked1890 phoney1893 phantom1897 the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > semblance, outward show > [adjective] fairOE seeming1340 feignedc1374 colourablea1400 whitea1413 coloured?c1425 satiablec1487 provable1588 specious1611 well-seeminga1616 superficial1616 meretricious1633 glosseda1640 probable1639 spurious1646 fucatious1654 ostensible1762 well-looking1811 semblant1840 the mind > will > motivation > [adjective] > of motives or purposes: ostensible ostensive1782 ostensible1847 1762 [implied in: H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting II. ii. 55 He was even employed in the treaty of marriage, though ostensibly acting only in the character of a painter. (at ostensibly adv. 1)]. 1771 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. liv. 240 The best of princes is not displeased with the abuse, which he sees thrown upon his ostensible ministers. 1786 E. Burke Articles of Charge against W. Hastings iv. 64 A party of British and other troops, with the Nabob in the ostensible, and the British resident in the real command. 1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. III. 269 There will be less that is ostensible and more that is genuine, as they grow older. 1847 C. Brontë Jane Eyre I. x. 160 My ostensible errand on this occasion was to get measured for a pair of shoes. 1897 W. Walsh Secret Hist. Oxf. Movement x. 342 The ostensible reason for restoring the Reserved Sacrament is that it is then always ready to be given to the sick. 1943 M. Samuel tr. S. Asch Apostle ii. i. 224 Despite his ostensible attitude of indifference toward the plebs which had hailed him, Agrippa was pleased by the popular reception. 1992 Spy (N.Y.) May 14/2 One wonders if this ostensible pat on the back wasn't actually a sly, bitchy dig. †B. n. 1. That which is shown or apparent; an ostensible reason or purpose; (concrete) an ostensible letter. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1765 W. Robertson Let. in Franklin Papers (1968) XII. 70 In order however to make the Thing go easily with our Senatus Academicus beg of him to write an Ostensible to me attesting the Literature and moral character of Mr. Stiles. 1801 L. Chester Federalism Triumphant i. i. 10 I intend to have the appointment of an attorney general, the ostensible of the office, is to settle public accounts. 1801 L. Chester Federalism Triumphant i. iii. 16 Their ostensible was, that they meant to elevate him as high as possible, to render his fall the more signal and terrible. 2. In plural. Ostensible matters. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ society > communication > manifestation > [noun] > that which may be manifested ostensibles1861 1861 J. Pycroft Agony Point (1862) xxiii. 231 When all these positive essentials and ostensibles were so respectably witnessed. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.n.1734
随便看	atelognathia atelomyelia atelostomia atemporal aten atend atene atenism atenolol atenolols atens aterian ates atest atestine atew ateynt atf atfall atfare atflee atfong atfore atgo athabaskan