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Origin and history of subreption

subreption(n.)

"act of obtaining a favor by concealment or fraudulent suppression of facts," c. 1600, from Latin subreptionem (nominative subreptio), noun of action from past-participle stem of subripere, surripere "seize secretly, take away, steal, plagiarize" (see surreptitious). Related: Subreptitious; supreptive.

also from c. 1600

Entries linking to subreption

surreptitious(adj.)

"fraudulent, done by stealth or without legitimate authority," mid-15c., surrepticious, from Latin surrepticius "stolen, furtive, clandestine," from surreptus, past participle of surripere, "seize secretly, take away, steal, plagiarize," from assimilated form of sub "from under" (hence, "secretly;" see sub-) + rapere "to snatch" (see rapid). Related: Surreptitiously.

The Latin verb also was subripere, in an unassimilated form, and English also used subreptitious for "clandestine" (c. 1600).

obreption(n.)

"the obtaining or trying to obtain something by craft or deception," 1610s, from Latin obreptionem (nominative obreptio) "a creeping or stealing on," noun of action from past-participle stem of obrepere "to creep on, creep up to," from ob "on, to" (see ob-) + repere "to creep" (see reptile). Opposed to subreption, which is to obtain something by suppression of the truth. Related: Obreptious.

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    Trends of subreption

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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