Word: spuriousness
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Average Occidentals who possess an old piece of almost any kind of Oriental pottery are apt to believe firmly that it is "antique Satsuma." Connoisseurs reject as probably spurious any large piece, since the ancient Satsuma craftsmen whose work is so highly prized confined themselves almost exclusively to small pieces distinguished first by their lustrous glaze, second by the extreme thinness of the hairlike crackle lines and finally by the jewel-like glow and brilliance of the minutely intricate enamel painting. Nearly all "antique Satsuma" sold today is spurious, distinguished first by lustreless colors which result from artificial aging...
...English, the Foundation found, "students drop the study as freshmen, and literary knowledge tends to disappear. ... As for vocabulary . . . the effect of college . . . appears to be almost negligible and in some cases positively injurious. ... To a senior with average score the word benighted means weary, recreant means diverting and spurious means foamy. Possibly the fact that he takes the word assiduous to mean foolish may help explain his case...
Tarzan, the Ape Man is frankly and gorgeously spurious. It was not made in Africa with benefit of publicity and palaver, but on the home grounds of Hollywood, where the apes, crocodiles, lions, tigers, dwarfs, elephants and gorillas are better acquainted with their histrionic duties and can discharge them more effectively. Almost as effective as the animals is Tarzan Weissmuller. His ability as a swimmer has never led him into jungles. The wildest animal he ever knew hitherto was the comparatively tame and toothless alligator which used sometimes to be allowed to splash comically in the Roney-Plaza Hotel...
...gasoline tank fires. All this, photographed brilliantly and from every angle, is enough to make The Crowd Roars a dreadful and a stimulating spectacle. It is almost enough to make you forget that the story, written by Howard Hawks (in collaboration with Seton I. Miller), is slight and spurious as is usually the case when ^ a director undertakes to film his own writings. James Cagney is a race track driver with a curious obsession. He loves liquor and what he calls "women," but he is so anxious to segregate his young brother from all such enticements that he hurls...
...present spurious coins are of such perfect impressions that identification by the design is impossible for the layman. Due to lead content, however, their color tends to be darker than that of the true tokens and they can be cut more easily with a pen-knife. Anyone attempting to pass a counterfeit coin is liable to immediate arrest...