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Latest post Sun, Jan 8 2006 4:03 PM by MrPedantic. 4 replies.
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Anonymous  +  179606 Fri, 06 Jan 06 08:05 AM
I am unsure of what "spurious" means in this context:
"Who wouldn't get frantic when the whole matter was perfectly clear without naive equestions, and when it had already been decided that even to talk about it was spurious?"

thanks

Nef  +  179645 Fri, 06 Jan 06 09:53 AM

From www.dictionary.com:

spurious - Lacking authenticity or validity in essence or origin; not genuine; false

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I think the idea is that to talk about "the whole matter" was pointless, time wasting, and possibly even serving absolutely no purpose other than to cause trouble.

Nef
Joined on Sun, Jan 1 2006
California, USA
Regular Member 638
Anonymous, 3 yr 319 days ago

From Cambridge Online Dictionary :

spurious - false and not what it appears to be, or (of reasons and judgments) based on something that has not been correctly understood and therefore false:
Some of the arguments in favour of shutting the factory are questionable and others downright spurious.

see ya

Anonymous, 3 yr 319 days ago
if spurious means false, it doesn't make sense in the context.

"Who wouldn't get frantic when the whole matter was perfectly clear without naive equestions, and when it had already been decided that even to talk about it was FALSE?"

the talking of something can be false? that doesn't make sense.

MrPedantic  +  180305 Sun, 08 Jan 06 04:03 PM

Hello Anon

I can't think of a context in which it would make sense to describe the act of talking as "spurious".

I think the speaker made a mistake. He meant something like: "even to talk about it showed dishonest intentions".

(The word is commonly misused.)

MrP

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member 12,592
...opella forensis / adducit febris...
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