English
falsity
Falsity comes from Late Latin falsitas ‘falsehood, falsity, untruth, lie’, from Latin falsus ‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed,…’, and ultimately from fallō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘deceive, trick’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed, having been deceived’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEfalsitas‘falsehood, falsity, untruth, lie’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600fausseté
- Englishearliest quotation 1949falsity
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘deceive, trick’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed, having been deceived’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEfalsitas‘falsehood, falsity, untruth, lie’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600fausseté
- Englishearliest quotation 1949falsity
Earliest quotation: 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories…”
Formed from false + -ity
Latin fallō ‘to deceive’
Latin falsus ‘counterfeit, false’
Old English fals ‘false; fraud’
Middle English false
English false
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- ‘to stumble’
through Proto-Italic *falsō
through Latin fallō ‘deceive, trick’
failure, default, falsely, fallacy, fallacious, fallible, falsetto, 6 more
through Latin falsus ‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed,…’
Today it means
noun Something that is false; an untrue assertion.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fallō / falsity