ostensibly
apparently
TRANSLATION
ostensibly = augenscheinlich, angeblich --- GOOGLE INDEX ostensibly: approximately 11,000,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
In London, the company revealed that products OSTENSIBLY containing beef but actually made predominantly with horsemeat could have been on sale in Britain since August last year.
(The Australian)
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The 128 GB devices, which retail for $999, were OSTENSIBLY so popular that Microsoft grossly underestimated the overwhelming demand.
(Motley Fool)
(The Australian)
---
The 128 GB devices, which retail for $999, were OSTENSIBLY so popular that Microsoft grossly underestimated the overwhelming demand.
(Motley Fool)
Did you
know?
ostensibly
adverb
- appearing or claiming to be one thing when it is really something else
ostensible
adjective
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Some of the news these days is ostensibly ostensible. Media organisations, in a rush to report the latest "breaking news," sometime go to press without being able to verify certain facts. That presents a dilemma to serious news outlets who strive to be the first with an "exclusive report."
Thus we read every day about ostensible occurrences, especially in politics. Because politicians have learned the hard way that giving out information can be a career killer, reporters often have to rely on unconfirmed facts, innuendo and rumour. This leaves them no choice but to use words like ostensibly, allegedly, apparent and scores of other synonyms that basically mean, "We can't be sure about this information, but we're going to report it anyway."
Even more interesting is how Robert Plant of the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin described his ancestry in terms of being ostensible: "I'm British - ostensibly British - but I don't know where I really belong, you know?" Either he ostensibly failed to look carefully at his birth certificate or he was ostensibly experiencing an identity crisis. We can't be sure, so that's why we have to use the word "ostensibly" here.
The etymology of ostensibly is not ostensible however. We can report with certainty that it derives from the Latin ostendere (to show, expose to view, exhibit, stretch out) by way of the French ostensible. The meaning of "apparent, alleged" first appears in the 1770s.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"His laptop was ostensibly stolen by someone who broke into his hotel room."
adverb
- appearing or claiming to be one thing when it is really something else
ostensible
adjective
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
Some of the news these days is ostensibly ostensible. Media organisations, in a rush to report the latest "breaking news," sometime go to press without being able to verify certain facts. That presents a dilemma to serious news outlets who strive to be the first with an "exclusive report."
Thus we read every day about ostensible occurrences, especially in politics. Because politicians have learned the hard way that giving out information can be a career killer, reporters often have to rely on unconfirmed facts, innuendo and rumour. This leaves them no choice but to use words like ostensibly, allegedly, apparent and scores of other synonyms that basically mean, "We can't be sure about this information, but we're going to report it anyway."
Even more interesting is how Robert Plant of the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin described his ancestry in terms of being ostensible: "I'm British - ostensibly British - but I don't know where I really belong, you know?" Either he ostensibly failed to look carefully at his birth certificate or he was ostensibly experiencing an identity crisis. We can't be sure, so that's why we have to use the word "ostensibly" here.
The etymology of ostensibly is not ostensible however. We can report with certainty that it derives from the Latin ostendere (to show, expose to view, exhibit, stretch out) by way of the French ostensible. The meaning of "apparent, alleged" first appears in the 1770s.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"His laptop was ostensibly stolen by someone who broke into his hotel room."
