mentitore

Forms

mentitore m (plural mentitori, feminine mentitrice)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian mentire + -tore, an agent noun.^[2][3][1][4] Meyer-Lübke and Körting set it among the Romance outcomes of Latin mentitor (“liar”),^[5][6] and Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin *mentitōrem.^[1] The same agent noun is Romanian mințitor, French menteur, Occitan mentidor, Catalan mentidor and Portuguese mentidor.^[5][6][1]

The verb is a learned word from Latin mentior (“to lie”), derived from mens (“mind”).^[7][8][1] DELI quotes Devoto for the development of its meaning, from “imagine” to “pretend” and then “lie”.^[7] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The late 13th-century Novellino has the phrase fare rimanere mentitori “to show someone to be a liar”.^[7][9] The word itself is first dated to Dante's Convivio, 1304–1308, where it means one who tells lies: li ciechi … con la mano in su la spalla a questi mentitori “the blind … with their hand on the shoulder of these liars”.^[7][2][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was both a noun and an adjective, “one who lies” and “lying”, and also named the defender of false opinions.^[4][7] Cavalca, Michelangelo, Marino and Magalotti used it, Marino in the feminine mentitrice.^[4] Tommaseo records far rimaner mentitore alcuno “to give the lie to someone” and the Tuscan proverb credi al vantatore, come al mentitore “believe the boaster as you would the liar”.^[9]

Today it is a common but somewhat formal synonym of bugiardo.^[2][10][11] In logic, paradosso del mentitore is the liar paradox of Epimenides.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1287 – Zingarelli's date of first record.^[10]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino has fare rimanere mentitori.^[7]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses mentitori in the Convivio.^[7][2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. liar: one who knowingly says what is untrue, especially by habit; a synonym of bugiardo: Non fidarti di lui, è un mentitore incallito.^{[2][13][12][1]}

Adjective

1. Lying, untruthful: un amico mentitore.^[12][2][10]
2. Marked by falsehood; false, deceptive: lettere mentitrici.^[2][3]

Related words

• mentire
• menzogna
• bugiardo

Usage notes

The feminine is mentitrice.^[13][3][1] The paradosso del mentitore is the paradox attributed to Epimenides of Knossos, a Cretan who said that all Cretans are liars.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 104
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier