Falsity

Forms: 4 falste, falsite, 5 -etee, 6–7 -itie, (7 fauxitie), 6– falsity. [a. OF. falseté (mod.F. fausseté), ad. L. falsitās, f. falsus FALSE: see -ITY.]

  1.  The quality or condition of being false. a. Contrariety or want of conformity to truth or fact. Also an instance of this.

1579.  Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 577. Between veritie & falsitie there is no meane.

1655–60.  T. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 27/2. He [Solon] absolutely forbad him to teach or act Tragedies considering their falsity unprofitable.

1767.  Wilkes, Corr. (1805), III. 89. His lordship had not said a word to prove the falsity of any one sentence.

1879.  Gladstone, Glean., II. i. 3. Being rebuked by his teacher for inattention, in the lecture-room and before the whole class, he started up and denounced the falsity of the doctrine which was inculcated there.

  b.  Untruthfulness, deceitfulness, insincerity.

1603.  I. C., in Shaks. C. Warres, 943. Cressids falsitie.

1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 943. He grievously blamed them with accusations of ingratitude and falsity.

1879.  Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 235. A Greece which had lost its genius and retained its falsity.

  c.  Spurious or counterfeit character.

1678.  R. Barclay, An Apology for … Quakers, v. § 16. 146. Socrates was informed by it, in his day, of the Falsity of the Heathen’s Gods.

  2.  Something that is false, a. An untrue proposition, doctrine, or statement; an error or falsehood. Also in generalized sense, that which is untrue; false opinion or statement, error, falsehood.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.) Epist., *iv. In lyes and falsitie ther is no suche consent and concorde.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies (1662), III. 57. God forbid, that this Authors fauxities should make us undervalue this worthy King and Martyr, cruelly tortured to death by the Pagan Danes.

1776.  Paine, Com. Sense (1791), 24. The most plausible plea, which hath ever been offered in favour of hereditary succession, is, that it preserves a nation from civil wars; and were this true, it would be weighty; whereas, it is the most barefaced falsity ever imposed upon mankind.

1833.  Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 428. A preamble, composed of every falsity that could be devised.

  b.  A counterfeit, sham. rare.

1780.  Mad. D’Arblay, Lett., 22 Jan. This, as Miss Waldron said of her hair, is all a falsity.

  † 3.  False or treacherous conduct; treachery, fraud. Obs.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 247.

c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, II. cxxvi. (1869), 123. Flaterye j am cleped bi my name tresouns cosyn eldere doubter to falsetee norice to iniquitee.

1581.  Lambarde, Eirenarcha, IV. xxi. (1588), 625. A Justice of the Peace may also be endicted of the unlawfull taking of mony for doing his office, or of such other falsitie.