Word of the Day

: February 4, 2007

purport

verb per-PORT

What It Means

1 : to have the often specious appearance of being, intending, or claiming (something implied or inferred); also : claim

2 : intend, purpose

purport in Context

The authors purport to offer irrefutable proof of a conspiracy, but in reality their book gives us nothing but unproven conjecture.

Did You Know?

The verb "purport" may be more familiar nowadays, but the noun "purport" (a synonym of "gist," as in "gave the purport of her speech in a few words") is a bit older. The noun passed into English from Anglo-French in the mid 1400s. Anglo-French also had the verb "purporter" (meaning both "to carry" and "to mean"), which itself combined the prefix "pur-" ("thoroughly") and the verb "porter" ("to carry"). But English speakers apparently waited another seven decades to employ the verb. The first recorded use of "purport" as a verb doesn't appear until 1528.

*Indicates the word illustrated in the example sentence.