Today's Word "Specious"
Published in Vocabulary
specious \SPEE-shehs\ (adjective) - Ostensibly true but, in fact, false, misleading; deceptively attractive (language, gestures, and such).
"Jack admitted that the offer to donate $5,000 to a cause seemed attractive, but most it was in the form of goods of little use manufactured by the donor, so the offer was specious."
Today's word wandered into English from Latin speciosus "good-looking, beautiful, brilliant, handsome," from species "something seen, a sight, appearance, species," which also gave us "spice." The root comes from Proto-Indo-European *spek- "to observe, see, watch." This root underlies "spy," and "espy" from Old French "espier," currently "epier." It is also the forefather of various Latin borrowings based on spec- "to look, watch," such as "speculate," "spectacle," "spectrum," "respect," "inspect," etc. In Greek, the [p] and [k] changed places, creating the scope of "microscope," "periscope," and "telescope."
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