apocryphal

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adventrue
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apocryphal

Postby adventrue » 2017-05-07, 1:31

Can I use the word "apocryphal" like in the following paragraph?

"I know someone who has that line painted on his hippy bus... I thought it was just something he heard (or possibly made up), I did not realize it was that famous of a quote. I looked it up, it seems to be apocryphal."

The meaning here is "authorship unknown" - the meaning is not "falsely attributed". According to the dictionary I can use it like this, but is it ever used like this?

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Dormouse559
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Re: apocryphal

Postby Dormouse559 » 2017-05-11, 15:04

I haven't found any definition like "authorship unknown" in the dictionaries I've checked. That might be implied to a degree by the core meaning - If the assumed source is doubted, the actual source may be unknown - but I don't think the word is used with that meaning as the main one. For your passage, I would use "unattributed" or "(an) anonymous (quote)".
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