English
faux
Faux comes from Middle French faulx, from Old French fals ‘false’, and ultimately from Latin fallō ‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude,…’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed, having been deceived’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fals‘false’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600faulx
- Frenchc. 1600–presentfaux
- Englishearliest quotation 2008faux
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfalsus‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed, having been deceived’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400fals‘false’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600faulx
- Frenchc. 1600–presentfaux
- Englishearliest quotation 2008faux
Earliest quotation: 2008, James Chandler, Maureen N. McLane: “He modernizes the faux-archaic “withouten wind, withouten tide” to…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- ‘to stumble, misstep’
through Proto-Italic *falsō
through Latin fallō ‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude,…’
failure, default, falsely, fallacy, falsetto, fallacious, fallible, 5 more
through Latin falsus ‘deceived, tricked, cheated, disappointed,…’
Today it means
adj Fake or artificial.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fallō / faux