speciously

comparative more speciously · superlative most speciously

1. In a specious manner; fallaciously and erroneously, but seeming superficially to be correct.

   And thus his jealous soul speciously argued to excuse the separation of father and child.

   1886 May, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC

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   Exasperated, as he might speciously allege, by the injuries of a similar nature, he hastened with a few followers to join the standard, and to betray the confidence, of his too credulous friend.

   1781, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC

   Once viewed—however speciously—as an escape from the wider world, American sports and politics have been explicitly entwined since athletes began protesting civil rights injustices, prodding their organisations to take a stance amid the polarising rise to power of Donald Trump.

   2023 June 12, Tom Dart, “US culture wars come to baseball as MLB celebrates Pride month”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

comparative more speciously · superlative most speciously

1. malapropismSpecially.

   I will do what I can for them all three, for so I haue promisd, and Ile bee as good as my word, but speciously for M. Fenton.

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 52