Specious Vs. Spurious: The Definitive Guide
If you love super-fine distinctions, you’re about to be quite pleased
Sometimes, the English language can be a real jerk. Like a cat pushing a delicate champagne flute off the edge of the table. Need evidence of this? Look no further than the existence of “specious” and “spurious.” Did we really need two words that both look very much alike, and mean very much the same thing?
Both these words, in the TL;DR sense, mean “false.” Here’s the World Book Dictionary definition of each:
specious (adj) 1 seeming desirable, reasonable, or probable, but not really so; apparently good or right, but without real merit: a specious appearance of fair play. 2 making a good outward appearance in order to deceive: a specious friendship; a specious flatterer. 3 (Archaic) showy, beautiful, lovely [Latin speciosus < species, ei appearance]
spurious (adj) 1 not genuine or authentic, especially a) not having the source, origin or author claimed for it; forged; counterfeit: a spurious painting, a spurious document. b) false, sham: spurious anger. 2 (Botany) superficially resembling but differing in form and structure. 3 = illegitimate [Latin spurius illegitimate child]
