A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1675-1700+
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Surreptitious(e, Subreptitious, adj. [Late ME and e.m.E. surrepticious (1443), subreptitious (1610), surreptitious (1615), f. as Surreptice adj.] a. = Surreptice adj. b. Stealthy, underhand. —a. 1683 Fountainhall Decis. I 208.
[The officers of the Mint] could not be made accountable for this excess [sc. of copper coin] because his Majesty … by two exonerations … had discharged … the same; neither could the exonerations be termed subreptitious or obreptitious 1708 Fountainhall Decis. II 419.
Then he objected thir two nullities against Sir Alexander Cumming's gift … That it was surreptitious and obreptitious, containing a plain falsity [etc.] —b. ?c1675 J. Gordon Hist. II 165.
The Comissione of the Churche, … was lickd into a shape, midwyfed by polititians, and its power added to it by peece meale, in a surreptitiouse waye
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"Surreptitious adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 14 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/surreptitiouse>
