Putative

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Putative \Pu"ta*tive\, a. [L. putativus, fr. putare, putatum, to
     reckon, suppose, adjust, prune, cleanse. See {Pure}, and cf.
     {Amputate}, {Compute}, {Dispute}, {Impute}.]
     Commonly thought or deemed; supposed; reputed; as, the
     putative father of a child. "His other putative (I dare not
     say feigned) friends." --E. Hall.


     [1913 Webster]
  
           Thus things indifferent, being esteemed useful or
           pious, became customary, and then came for reverence
           into a putative and usurped authority.   --Jer. Taylor.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  putative
       adj : commonly put forth or accepted as true on inconclusive
             grounds; "the foundling's putative father"; "the
             reputed (or purported) author of the book"; "the
             supposed date of birth" [syn: {putative(a)}, {purported(a)},
              {reputed(a)}, {supposed(a)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  42 Moby Thesaurus words for "putative":
     accountable, accounted as, alleged, ascribable, assignable,
     assumed, assumptive, attributable, attributed, charged,
     conjectural, conjectured, credited, deemed, derivable from,
     derivational, derivative, due, explicable, given, granted,
     hypothetical, imputable, imputed, inferred, owing, postulated,
     postulational, premised, presumed, presumptive, referable,
     referred to, reputed, supposed, suppositional, supposititious,
     suppositive, suppository, taken for granted, traceable,
     understood
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PUTATIVE. Reputed to be that which is not. The word is frequently used, as 
  putative father, (q.v.) putative marriage, putative wife, and the like. And 
  Toullier, tome 7, n. 29, uses the words putative owner, proprietare putatif. 
  Lord Kames uses the same expression. Princ. of Eq. 391.