Friday word: Mendacious

[med_cat]

A Latin word this week :)
~~~
 MENDACIOUS : given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth

Examples:

The newspaper story was mendacious and hurtful.

Indeed, the racist and Malthusian elements in Darwin's work are subjects on which the new secularists are either silent, delicate, or mendacious. —Eugene McCarraher, Commonweal, 15 June 2007


Etymology:
Latin mendac-, mendax, lying

First Known Use: 1616

Comments

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

'nother great choice.

[med_cat]

Pleased you liked it :)

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Yes, but is it a bald-faced lie?

---L.

[med_cat]

Mm, what do you mean?

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Just playing with meanings. (The answer usually is "no" -- mendacious usually implies a more subtle swerving from the strict truth, as in selectively omitting details to convey the wrong impression or sometimes even telling the truth in such a way as it is disbelieved. A bald-faced lie is a flat-out falsehood.)

---L.

[med_cat]

Ah, I see :)