propter hocn.adv.adj.

1671 T. Watson Mischief of Sinne 43 So that still there is a propter hoc, a cause why God brings any person low.

1783 M. Underwood Treat. Ulcers Legs 36 The post Hoc and propter Hoc, it is well known, require a judicious discrimination.

1843 R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. xi. 119 In the cases in which recovery is stated to have followed this practice [of mercurialization] the post hoc has been mistaken for the propter hoc.

1865 Times 29 Sept. 9/2 In estimating the effects of such and such treatment the post hoc is assumed to be the propter hoc.

1901 E. L. Baldwin & J. M. Baldwin tr. K. Groos Play of Man i. iii. 152 Only through frequent repetitions of the post hoc does independent interest in the propter hoc gradually arise.

1935 M. S. Libby Attitude of Voltaire to Magic & Sci. v. 238 Men have jumped to conclusions much too hastily. They have not waited to see if the post hocs were propter hocs.

2002 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 1 Mar. p. vi This means that most of them get their post hocs badly mixed up with their propter hocs—not something a smart guru should do.

1844 Times 6 Jan. 6/1 In some instances, perhaps, the change which has followed his writing has been not only post hoc, but partly propter hoc.

1847 New Englander (New Haven, Connecticut) Oct. 614/1 Post hoc, (whether propter hoc, the committee themselves best know,) the book disappears from the market.

1876 B. F. Butler Let. to Hon. E. R. Hoar 23 The precinct where I spoke in Ohio..quite maintained its majority of last year. Now I don't say propter hoc, but I have a right to say post hoc.

1955 A. Huxley Genius & Goddess 53 He was a most distinguished chemist; and whether it was post hoc or propter hoc, I don't know; but his wife looked as if all her secretions were pure acetic acid.

1991 Times (Nexis) 18 July Girls take greater pleasure in private reading than boys, and in writing about books they have read. Probably propter hoc, girls continue to score better than boys at reading and writing.

2004 Law & Contemp. Probl. Autumn 15 Arguments like these do not demonstrate that what has happened propter hoc (i.e. litigation..) deserves blame for what ensued post hoc (the effects on goods, services, businesses, and government finances that tort reformers mourn).

1889 F. T. Palgrave Visions of Eng. (ed. 2) 101 Who should say how often, in case of these long and wide extended struggles..the effects which we confidently claim as propter hoc, are only post hoc in the last reality?

1947 I. J. Pitman in E. Barker Char. of Eng. xxii. 457 A university blue and an international cap are admittedly by no means a handicap in a scholastic, or even a business, life, but then at any rate they will have become post hoc, and be no longer propter hoc.

1979 R. A. Preston in H. S. Albinski Perspectives on Revol. & Evol. i. 9 Discussion..uncovered complications other than whether particular features of American society had developed as post hoc or propter hoc consequences of the Revolution.

2002 Christianity & Lit. 51 353 Episode sometimes seems to follow episode with more post hoc than propter hoc attention from the reader.