subreption

English

Etymology

From Latin subreptio, from subripere, subreptum (“to snatch or take away secretly”). Compare French subreption. See surreptitious, surreptition.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʌbˈɹɛpʃən/

Noun

subreption (countable and uncountable, plural subreptions)

1. (historical) Under Roman law, the act of giving false testimony.
2. (Catholic canon law) The act of obtaining a favour or grant by unfair representation through suppression or fraudulent concealment of facts.
   • 1644, Bishop Joseph Hall, A Modest Offer:

     lest there should be any subreption in this sacred business, it is ordered, that these Ordinations should be no other than solemn

3. (Scots law) The act of obtaining a gift or favor by concealing the truth.
4. (philosophy) The conflation of a condition under which it is possible to intuitively understand an object, and a condition under which an object can possibly exist; the confusion of knowing with experiencing.
5. a concealment of the pertinent facts in a petition, as for dispensation or favor, that in certain cases nullifies the grant",[5] "the obtainment of a dispensation or gift by concealment of the truth".

Coordinate terms

• obreption
• Surreptition

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “subreption”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

subreption f (plural subreptions)

1. subreption

Further reading

• “subreption”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.