fake

English has two words spelled fake: the slang word for “counterfeit”, of unknown origin, and the nautical “coil of rope”, also of unknown origin and probably unrelated.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /feɪk/^[4]

fake¹ counterfeit

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^[1][5][2] A likely source, in Etymonline's and Hoad's view, is the earlier slang feague, feak “to beat”, also “to spruce up by artificial means”,^[1][6][7] from German fegen (“to polish, sweep”), colloquially also “to clear out, plunder, thrash”.^[1][6] Weekley noted that much early thieves' slang is German or Dutch and dates from the Thirty Years' War.^[1] Others have suggested Latin facere “to do”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, “counterfeit, spurious”: 1775,^[1][5][8] in a letter of Sir William Howe.^[5] Word Origins notes Ben Fakers, counterfeiters, once in a late 17th-century slang list.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb is London criminal slang, attested from 1812 in the sense “to do something to a person or thing”, especially to rob or kill,^[1][9][3] and the noun from 1827 in the OED,^[9][8] 1851 in Etymonline and Barnhart, a swindle or dodge,^[1][5] in Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor.^[5] Barnhart finds it odd that the noun and verb should first appear in lower-class slang 75 years after the adjective appeared in standard English.^[5] A faker, a swindler, is from 1888.^[1][5] “To feign, simulate” is from 1941,^[1][9] to fake it from 1915, as jazz slang,^[1] and of jazz musicians “to improvise” from 1926.^[9] In sport a fake, a feint, is from 1941, chiefly North American,^[9] and to fake out is from the 1940s.^[1] Fake news, deliberately misleading journalism, is attested from 1894 and became popular in the 2016 United States presidential campaign.^[1][7] The word was more used in America and became mainstream British English only in the mid-20th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 1775 – adjective, counterfeit.^[1][5]
• 1812 – verb, to rob.^[1][9]
• 1827 – noun, a dodge.^[9]
• 1888 – a swindler.^[1][5]
• 1894 – fake news.^[1]
• 1915 – fake it.^[1]
• 1941 – to feign; a feint in sport.^[1][9]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Having a false or misleading appearance; fraudulent.

Noun

1. Something that is not genuine; a sham or forgery.
2. A person who pretends to be what he or she is not; an impostor.
3. A feint meant to mislead an opponent in sport.

Verb

1. To make something false and present it as genuine; to counterfeit.
2. To feign or simulate: faked an injury.
3. To improvise a passage of music.
4. To deceive an opponent with a feint.

Word family

• faker
• fakery

fake² coil of rope

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English faken (“to coil a rope”),^[10][2] of unknown origin;^[3][11] Etymonline thinks it probably unrelated to the other fake and perhaps from Swedish veck (“a fold”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lay a rope in coils: perhaps before 1400 in the OED,^[9] the 15th century in Merriam-Webster.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The noun, one turn of a coiled rope or hawser, is from 1627.^[9][8] Phillips's dictionary of 1706 defined a fake as one circle or roll of a coiled cable.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – verb, to coil a rope.^[9]
• 1627 – noun, a turn of rope.^[9][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. One loop or turn of a coiled rope or cable.

Verb

1. To coil a rope or cable.

Related words

• feague
• faux

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)