falsehood

Etymology

It is formed from English false + -hood,^[2][3][4] and the OED takes it as partly formed with the suffix -head instead.^[5][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the Middle English forms as falshede and falshod,^[4] and the older form survived in dialect as falsehead.^[6] The base, fals, is from Old French fals and Latin falsus (“deceptive, feigned”),^[2][4][7] the past participle of fallō (“to deceive”).^[2][4] Formed on the same pattern are Old Frisian falschede, Dutch valschheid, German Falschheit and Swedish falskhet.^[2] Middle English also had the nouns falsage (“wrongdoing”), falsdom (“deceitfulness, treachery; a lie”), fals-lek (“falsehood”) and falsshipe (“deceitfulness, dishonesty”), all now extinct.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An untruth that someone utters, a lie: about 1290, in the South English Legendary.^[5] Etymonline has falshede from about 1300, for both deceitfulness and a lie,^[2] and Dictionary.com dates the Middle English word to 1250–1300.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word could describe a person's character: deceitfulness and faithlessness, a sense the OED follows from 1297 to 1515.^[5][6] It was also used for deception in action, and for a forgery or counterfeit, a use now obsolete or archaic.^[5][6] From before 1400 it meant lack of conformity to fact, which now almost always implies that the untruth is intended.^[5] From 1393 it could also be an untrue doctrine or belief.^[5][6] In 1552 Robert Recorde's arithmetic used rule of falsehood for the method of false position.^[5] The sense "the making of false statements, lying" is recorded from 1662, in Stillingfleet,^[5][6] and in Scots law the word is found from 1678 for the older falset.^[5] Johnson (1755) listed lack of truth, lack of honesty or treachery, and a lie.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – an uttered untruth, a lie.^[5]
• 1297 – of persons, deceitfulness, faithlessness (obsolete by 1515).^[5] Etymonline dates falshede, deceitfulness, to about 1300.^[2]
• 1340 – deception; a forgery or counterfeit.^[5]
• 1393 – an untrue proposition, doctrine or belief.^[5]
• before 1400 – lack of conformity to fact or truth.^[5]
• c. 1440 – an error in writing, a slip of the pen (obsolete).^[5]
• 1552 – rule of falsehood, in arithmetic (obsolete).^[5]
• 1662 – the intentional making of false statements, lying.^[5]
• 1678 – in Scots law, the term of modern law books for the older falset.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. An untrue statement, especially one made on purpose; a lie: The report contained several plain falsehoods.^{[4][9][10][5]}
2. Lack of truth or accuracy; the quality of being untrue: No one could prove the falsehood of his claim.^[4][9][10]
3. The practice of lying; mendacity.^[4][9][5]
4. (Scots law) Fraudulent imitation or suppression of the truth.^[4][5]
5. (archaic) Deception or falsification; a forgery or counterfeit.^[5][6]
6. (obsolete, 1297–1515) Deceitfulness or faithlessness in a person.^[5][6][11]

Related words

• false
• falsity
• falseness
• falsify

Usage notes

A falsehood distorts or suppresses the truth in order to deceive; a fib is a trivial falsehood; a lie is a vicious one; an untruth may mislead on purpose, though it is less harsh a word than falsehood or lie, or may come from misunderstanding or ignorance.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers