English
false
False comes from Old English fals, from Latin falsus ‘counterfeit, false’, past participle of fallō ‘to deceive’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘to deceive’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘counterfeit, false’perfect passive participle of fallō
- Old Englishc. 450–1150fals‘false; fraud’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500false
- Englishearliest quotation 1551false
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘to deceive’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘counterfeit, false’perfect passive participle of fallō
- Old Englishc. 450–1150fals‘false; fraud’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500false
- Englishearliest quotation 1551false
Earliest quotation: 1551, James A.H. Murray, Oxford: Clarendon Press: “Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples…”
The story
Reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman and Old French fals, faus.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- ‘to stumble’
through Proto-Italic *falsō
through Latin fallō ‘deceive’
failure, default, fallacy, fallacious, fallible, 7 more
through Latin falsus ‘counterfeit, false’
Today it means
adj Untrue, not factual, factually incorrect.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fallō / false