Also † falsehead. Forms; α. 3–6 fals(e)-, (4 falce-, fauls- south dial. vals-), hed(e, -ed, (4 -ede, -heed, -id, 5 -hedd, 6 -heade), 6–7 -head. β. 4–6 fals- (6 false-) hod(e, (4 Sc. -ade), 6– falsehood. [f. FALSE a. + -HEAD, -HOOD.]
† 1. As an attribute of persons: Falseness, deceitfulness, mendacity, faithlessness. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 454.
| Aleyn, erl of Brytayne, aȝen ȝou yarmed ys, | |
| Of falshede, ne of trecherye, in þe worl hys per nys. |
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, xi. 2. Sothfastnes is lessed & falshede waxis.
c. 1440. Generydes, 1538.
| All this is done but for a sotilte, | |
| To hide your falshede vnder a coverture, | |
| But he shall dye to morow be ye sure. |
1534. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxii. 253. Me thynke he is full of falshede for I se none other but he purchaseth for your deth.
2. Want of conformity to fact or truth; falsity. Now almost always implying intentional falsity.
c. 1440. Generydes, 5221.
| Ffalshede and trougth is euer atte debate: | |
| And yet Sygrem was allway fortenate; | |
| ffor lucidas, whanne he brought hir the ryng, | |
| Gave hym a mantell of hir owne weryng. |
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., I. viii. Truthe and falshed be two contraryauntes.
1611. Bible, Job xxi. 34. How then comfort ye me in vaine, seeing in your answeres there remaineth falshood?
1742. Johnson, L. P., Sydenham. The falshood of this report.
1793. Beddoes, Scurvy, 46. He has at once shewn the falsehood of the conclusion.
1809–10. Coleridge, The Friend (1865), 20. If any temptation can provoke a well-regulated temper to intolerance, it is the shameless assertion, that truth and falsehood are indifferent in their own natures; that the former is as often injurious (and therefore criminal) as the latter, and the latter on many occasions as beneficial (and consequently meritorious) as the former.
b. That which, or something that, is contrary to fact or truth; an untrue proposition, doctrine, belief, etc.; untrue propositions, etc. in general.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 136.
| Logique hath eke in his degre | |
| Betwene the trouthe and the falshode | |
| The pleine wordes for to shode. |
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. xiv. 373. Out of a treuthe folewith not a falshede.
1691. Hartcliffe, A Treatise of Moral and Intellectual Virtues, 289. No Power, how great soever, can make any Thing indifferently to be true; nor can create such Minds, as shall have as clear Conceptions of Falshoods, as they have of Truths.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 278. Some believed that the good and the bad would be destroyed together; that truth would be suppressed together with falsehood; that a rule of faith and life would be established in accordance with the old law, and that those who did not receive it willingly would be compelled by violence to conform to it.
1847. Helps, Friends in C. (1854), I. 6. Each age has to fight with its own falsehoods.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 32. It would be easy, of course, to exaggerate this truth of the continuity of history into a falsehood.
† c. An error, mistake (in writing); a slip of the pen. Obs. rare.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 148. Falsheed yn boke, for yvel wrytynge, menda.
3. Deception, falsification, imposture; a forgery, counterfeit. Obs. or arch.
1340. Ayenb., 40. Notaryes þet makeþ þe ualse lettres, and … to uele oþre ualshedes.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 616. Þanne [he] … fyejj on her falshedes bat bei bifore deden.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 122.
| Hee … Artificer of fraud and was the first | |
| That practis’d falshood under saintly shew. | |
| Ibid., IV. 812 | |
| No falshood can endure | |
| Touch of Celestial temper. |
4. The intentional making of false statements; lying. (Occasionally with wider sense adopted from ancient philosophy: see quot. 1810.)
1662. Stillingfl., Origines Sacræ, I. iv. § 10. Herodotus was not the first suspected of falshood in these latter ages of the world.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xvi. Add not the audacity of falsehood to the headlong passions of youth.
1810. Bentham, The Elements of the Art of Packing (1821), 135 note. Your logical falsehood is—where, for example, you speak of a thing which is not true as if it were true, whether you think it true or not: your ethical falsehood is—where you speak of a thing as true, believing it not to be true, whether it be really true or not.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 394, ‘Charades and Enigmas,’ viii.
| And fraud in kings was held accurst, | |
| And falsehood sin was reckoned, | |
| And mighty chargers bore my First, | |
| And fat monks wore my Second! |
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 24. Falsehood is permitted by their religion.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 74, Laws, Introduction. He who loves involuntary falsehood is a fool.
5. An uttered untruth; a lie. Also, false statements, uttered untruth, in general.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., 42/288. Alas, alas, þe deolfole cas: to heore so muche falshede!
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 140. He seies, as blaspheme falsehed þat he makes medeful to slee Cristen men.
c. 1450. Gesta Rom., xlix. 223. (Harl. MS.). He with his sotil cautellis & falshedes blindithe & disseyuithe þe soule.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., IV. i. 39.
| And I will turne thy falshood to thy hart, | |
| Where it was forged, with my Rapiers point. |
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xii. Why did you accuse me of having told a falsehood.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, ii. § 15. 42. To cover brick with cement, and to divide this cement with joints that it may look like stone, is to tell a falsehood.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. iv. 314. A small element of truth may furnish a substructure for a considerable edifice of falsehood.
† 6. Arith. Rule of Falsehood = ‘False Position’: see POSITION. Obs.
1542. Recorde, The Grounde of Artes (1575), 439. The rule of Falsehode, whiche beareth his name … for that by false numbers taken at all aduentures, it teacheth howe to finde those true numbers that you seeke for.
7. Sc. Law. (See quot.): in mod. law books for the older FALSET.
1699. Sir G. Mackenzie, Laws Cust. Scot., xxvii. 134. Falsum, Falshood … a fraudulent suppression, or imitation of Truth, in prejudice of another.
1773. in J. Erskine, Instit. Law Scot., IV. iv. § 66.
1861. in W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 378/2.
8. Comb., as falsehood-free, falsehood-monger.
1839. Lady Lytton, Cheveley (ed. 2), I. xii. 293. Heavens! what will not those falsehood-mongers, the poets, have to answer for.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, Exile’s Return, iii.
| How change could touch the falsehood-free | |
| And changeless thee. |
