putative

English edit

WOTD – 7 March 2010

Etymology edit

First attested 1432, from Middle French putatif, from Latin putātīvus (“supposed, purported”), from putātus (“thought”), from putō (“I think, I consider, I reckon”).

Pronunciation edit

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpju.tə.tɪv/
- Audio (Southern England) (file)
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈpju.tə.tɪv/, [ˈpju.ɾə.ɾɪv]
(General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈpjʉ.tə.tɪv/, [ˈpjʉ.ɾə.ɾɪv]

Adjective edit

putative (comparative more putative, superlative most putative)

(derogatory) Commonly believed or deemed to be the case; accepted by supposition rather than as a result of proof.
Synonyms: ostensible, purported, reputed, supposed
- 1879 November 9, Maurice Mauris, “A Materialistic Artist”, in New York Times, page 10:
  [T]he lady . . . insisted upon going herself, requesting me to mind for a second the baby. . . . lo! the baby awoke and stared at me with a pair of big frightened eyes, which the little thing in another moment rolled in all directions, as if in search of its putative mother.
- 1989, William E. Colby and Jeremy J. Stone, "US must support Thailand if Cambodia is to survive," Milwaukee Sentinel (Los Angeles Times Service), 28 Oct. (retrieved 15 Sep. 2009):
  Just as Prince Sihanouk is fronting for the Khmer Rouge today . . . so also was he their putative leader from 1970 to 1975.
- 2006 August 18, Unmesh Kher, “No Neat Endings for the JonBenet Case”, in Time:
  Karr's past does raise suspicions. When he was arrested in Bangkok, he was living in a dormitory-like guesthouse in a neighborhood frequented by sex tourists. . . . Of course, Karr's putative pedophilia would not make him guilty of murder.
- 2016 August 11, Mary Karr, “The Crotchgrabber”, in The New Yorker‎^[1]:
  I’ve been subject to several gropings and gross jibes of the type you’d expect behind a junior-high gym dance, and they’ve been delivered by grownups, putative pals, not one of whom I even dimly considered getting jiggy with.