Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SPU'RI-OUS, a. [L. spurius.]

1. Not genuine; not proceeding from the true source, or from the source pretended; counterfeit; false; adulterate. Spurious writings are such as are not composed by the authors to whom they are ascribed. Spurious drugs are common. The reformed churches reject spurious ceremonies and conditions.
2. Not legitimate; bastard; as, spurious issue. By the laws of England, one begotten and born out of lawful matrimony, is a spurious child. Spurious disease, a disease commonly mistaken for, and called by the name of something which it is not; as spurious pleurisy, i. e. rheumatism of the intercostal muscles.