apocryphal

今日取り上げる単語もThe Art of ChoosingのSenses and Sensibilityの章からです。
The story may be apocryphal, but it gets at a basic truth: Personal happiness is always a very serious matter. It's all well and good to propose formulas and strategies to other people, but we're not sure we should trust them when our own long-term happiness is clearly at stake.
"apocryphal" で "apocalyptic" を連想したのですが、"apo" 以外は関係なさそうです。早速辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (Of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true: an apocryphal story about a former president
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: well-known but probably not true: There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Leonard Bernstein and tax returns.
駄目押しに説明が丁寧な次の辞書も見ます。
・Vocabulary.com: Urban legends ― stories about phantom hitchhikers, deep-fried rats, and spider eggs in bubblegum ― are classic examples of apocryphal tales. They're told as if they're true, but no one can ever identify their origins.
Today, any dubious or unverifiable story may be dismissed as apocryphal. If it can't be verified, it is seen as not real, true or authentic. Originally, however, apocryphal was reserved for religious writings that were not included in the Torah or the New Testament of the Bible because the divinity of the texts was not certain. These texts are known as the Apocrypha(sic.) and are included in the Septuagint (a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) and the Vulgate (a Latin Bible edited in the 4th century).
ところで "apo" は "not"、"un-" の意味があることもついでに頭に入れて置きます。