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(s
p
z
n) [ad. L. suppositio, -
nem, n. of action f. supposit-, suppn
re to SUPPONE. Cf. F. supposition, It. supposizione, Sp. suposicion, Pg. supposição.
The current meanings arose from the equation of med.L. suppositio to Gr. 
HYPOTHESIS, of which it is the etymological equivalent. In older L. suppositio is recorded only in the senses of ‘placing under’ and ‘substitution’.]
The action of supposing, or what is supposed.
1. Scholastic Logic. Something held to be true and taken as the basis of an argument. Obs.
c1449 PECOCK Repr. II. viii. 186 Wherfore, alle thingis seen, this..reule or supposicion is trewe.
a1529 SKELTON Replyc. 112 But ye were
confuse tantum, Surrendring your supposycions.
1551 ROBINSON tr.
More's Utopia II. (1895) 185 Those rules of restryctyons, amplyfycatyons, and supposytyons, very wittelye inuented in the small Logycalles.
1588 FRAUNCE Lawiers Logike II. iv. 92b, Suppositions are built rather upon idle supposals of schoolemen, then grounded upon any sure foundation of naturall experience.
c1590 MARLOWE Faustus vi, Who knowes not the double motion of the plannets? The first is finisht in a naturall day, The second thus, as Saturne in 30. yeares,..the Moone in 28. dayes. Tush, these are fresh mens suppositions.
2. The action of assuming, or, usually, that which is assumed (which may be either true or false), as a basis of argument or a premiss from which a conclusion is drawn.
a1596 Sir T. More II. iv. 113 Let me sett vp before your thoughts, good freindes, On [= one] supposytion.
1669 OWEN Expos. Ps. cxxx. 338 The due performance of all principal mutual Gospel Duties..depends on this supposition, that [etc.].
1704 NORRIS Ideal World II. xi. 414 The position of this chapter involves a supposition. It is here supposed that there are Divine Ideas.
1706 PRIOR Ode Queen Pref., Upon the Supposition of these Facts, Virgil wrote the best Poem that the World ever read.
1725 in
10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App.
I. 175 Even putting the supposition that nothing can be done from the north this summer.
1736 BUTLER Anal. I. i. 24 Upon supposition that they are compounded.
1754 EDWARDS Freed. Will I. iii. (1762) 22 All opposition is shut out and denied, in the very supposition of the case.
1765 Museum Rust. IV. 358 This calculation goes on the supposition that each mower dispatches three acres.
1798 HUTTON Course Math. (1806) I. 45 Making the other number of supposition the 1st term.
1836 H. ROGERS J. Howe ii. (1863) 32 On the
supposition
a supposition which the whole history of the period amply justifies [etc.].
1887 48th Rep. Deputy Kpr. Publ. Rec. 625 The supposition that the defendant had broken the plaintiff's close.
b. An assumption made to account for the known facts: = HYPOTHESIS 3. Obs.
1603 HOLLAND Plutarch's Mor. 1187 One of those suppositions alone was sufficient to make good the reason.
1669 STURMY Mariner's Mag. VI. iii. 105 The Copernican supposition of the Earths Motion.
3. A notion or idea that the thing in question is true, held without certainty or assurance, but as sufficiently probable to be assumed or admitted on account of agreement with the facts of the case; a hypothetical inference, or the action of making such inferences; an uncertain (sometimes, by implication, a false or mistaken) belief. 
in supposition, in uncertainty, uncertain, doubtful (obs.).
1596 SHAKES. Merch. V. I. iii. 18 My meaning in saying he is a good man, is..that he is sufficient, yet his meanes are in supposition.
1599 
Much Ado IV. i. 240 The supposition of the Ladies death, Will quench the wonder of her infamie.
1613 PURCHAS Pilgrimage VIII. ii. 611 A supposition, that there might be some Ilands or Parts of the Continent in times past, which is now swallowed by the mercilesse Ocean.
1667 PEPYS Diary 12 July, It is only said to be his [handwriting] by supposition.
1747 FRANKLIN Ess. Wks. 1840 III. 9 These are not mere suppositions, for I have heard some talk in this strange manner.
1790 PALEY Horæ Paul. xi. Wks. 1825 III. 215 That supposition is inconsistent with the terms and tenor of the epistle.
1832 BREWSTER Nat. Magic ii. 34, I..was driven to the extreme supposition that a crystallization was taking place in..the aqueous humour of the eye.
1861 PALEY Æschylus (ed. 2)
Choeph. 659
note, Klausen thinks that Clytemnestra must have overheard the remarks of Orestes..but the supposition is hardly necessary.
b. Used vaguely, with various shades of meaning: Idea, notion; imagination, fancy; occas. suspicion, expectation. Obs.
1586 A. DAY Engl. Secretorie I. (1625) 123 To torment your self by a needlesse supposition.
1590 SHAKES. Com. Err. III. ii. 50 Spread ore the siluer waues thy golden haires; And as a bud Ile take thee, and there lie: And in that glorious supposition thinke, He gaines by death, that hath such meanes to die.
1632 LITHGOW Trav. II. 69 Songs of Arcadian Sheepheards..did recreate my fatigated corps with many sugred suppositions.
1635 E. PAGITT Christianogr. II. iv (1636) 59 The Inquisition crusheth not only the beginnings, but the smallest suppositions in being contrarily affected.
1719 DE FOE Crusoe I. (Globe) 18, I meditated nothing but my Escape;..but found no Way that had the least Probability in it: Nothing presented to make the Supposition of it rational.
1784 SIR J. REYNOLDS Disc. xii. (1876) 39 They proceed upon a false supposition of life.
4. Fraudulent substitution of another thing or person in place of the genuine one; cf. SUPPOSITITIOUS 1. Obs.
1569 J. SANDFORD tr.
Agrippa's Van. Artes 11b, The deceits of Rhea, and the supposition of the stone.
1641 EARL OF MONMOUTH tr.
Biondi's Civil Wars v. 111 If she had a hand in the false supposition of an Edward Plantagenet.
1797 Monthly Mag. III. 536 Nothing was so common among the Athenian women as the supposition of children.
b. Insertion of something not genuine in a writing; that which is so inserted, an interpolation, a spurious passage; a spurious writing, a forgery.
1603 HOLLAND Plutarch's Mor. 1028 In what verses he useth so to doe, be sure they were of speciall marke, or els suppositions and suspected to be none of his making.
1608 BP. HALL Epist. IV. viii, All cary in them manifest brands of falshood and supposition.
1662 OWEN Liturgies v. Wks. 1855 XV. 22 Those treatises are justly suspected to be suppositions.
5. Mus. a. The introduction of passing-notes foreign to the harmony (called discords by supposition). b. The introduction of an extra note below the notes of a chord, or the transference of an upper note of a chord to the bass, as in an ‘inversion’ (cf. SUPPOSED 5). c. A bar common to two overlapping sections of rhythm, being the last bar of one and also the first of the other. Obs.
1728 CHAMBERS Cycl. s.v., There are several Kinds of Supposition: The first is, when the Parts proceed gradually from Concord to Discord, and Discord to Concord; the intervening Discord serving only as a Transition to the following Concord.
1730 Treat. Harmony 29 There is a way in Division of making use of Discords, upon the Second accented Part of the Bar, which way is called Supposition.
1752 tr.
Rameau's Treat. Musick 95 Minor Discords by Supposition may be prepared by another common Discord.
1797 [see
SUPPOSED 5].
1838 G. F. G
RAHAM Mus. Comp. 19/2 (tr.
Reicha) The supposition is a measure which..counts as two; 1. as final measure of the first rhythm; and, 2. as initial measure of the following rhythm.
1845 Encycl. Metrop. V. 752 Discords..may be..used without..regular preparation and resolution, though they are then no longer considered in the light of discords but passing..notes.
margin, Discords by supposition.
6. Scholastic Logic. Any of the different meanings of a term. Obs.
1697 tr. Burgersdicius Logic I. xxvi. 106 The diverse Acceptions of Words, which the Schoolmen call Suppositions, Effect no Homonymy... When I say Man is an Animal, the Word Animal is taken in the Concrete... This Concrete Acception is by the Schoolmen termed Personal, who dispute very largely of Acceptions, or, as they speak, Suppositions.
7. Med. Application of a suppository. Obs.
1643 J. STEER tr.
Exp. Chyrurg. vi. 23 The belly being first emptied by a supposition.
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