unostensibleadj.
/(ˌ)ʌnɒˈstɛnsᵻbl/, U.S. /ˌənˌɑˈstɛnsəb(ə)l/, /ˌənəˈstɛnsəb(ə)l/ Not ostensible; unseen, invisible; inconspicuous.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > hiding, concealing from view > keeping from knowledge > [adjective] > not evident, latent
potentiala1398
latentc1475
unevidentc1475
surreptitious1534
unmanifest1535
unapparent1554
unappearing1554
unmanifested1613
inevident1614
inapparenta1631
unobvious1643
immanifest1646
latitant1646
potentional1651
implicit1658
non-apparent1658
involute1669
unexposed1702
unostensible1766
1766 J. Almon Hist. Late Minority (ed. 3) xxii. 317 I cannot comprehend, my Lords, what unintelligible and unostensible influence could turn the hearts of that great Assembly.
1795 S. J. Pratt Gleanings through Wales II. xlvii. 390 The person capable of such an unseen, unostensible action is constitutionally and habitually incapable of those cruelties.
1817 M. Keatinge Trav. Through France & Spain to Morocco i. 127 The measures which are brought about by unostensible, and consequently by quiet means, are not..gratifying to human pride.
1851 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire III. xxv. 121 The real though unostensible leader of the republic.
1908 Logansport (Indiana) Daily Tribune 11 Mar. 6/5 A mother who has made a careful, although wisely unostensible, study of her boy's mode of expression.
1952 S. de Madariaga Bolivar ii. iii. §353 No mention is made of the ‘unostensible’ part of the mission.
2006 B. J. Ficarra Int. Diplomacy & United States National Policies xiii. 110 Financiers whose undisclosed, unostensible beneficence is concealed and deeply hidden from general, public knowledge.
Derivatives
unoˈstensibly adv.
ΚΠ
?1809 ‘An English Israelite’ Observ. Mission C. F. Frey 24 Private subscriptions raised among the Jewish nation, and unostensibly applied to the relief of domestic sufferers.
1862 S. Lucas Secularia 327 He received an ostensible letter of recall, and with it a private letter apprising him that ‘unostensibly his proceedings were approved of’.
1997 Renaissance Drama 28 237 The rich ‘ladies’ who..assimilated unostensibly into the gay male community.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1766