Playing Loose and Pulling Wool - Part 2

A week ago I mentioned "there is more than one way to shade the truth. And more words about it (the next blog on this subject with focus on words ending in -y rather than -ate)". These words have greater meaning or import than just falsehood. For the most part, today's words aren't just meant to hide the truth, they're also meant to cause hurt or harm. (The exception is mendacity, but it fits in the "y" theme.)



Calumny is a false or misleading statement meant to hurt someone. (That's also what's known as a political campaign.) It comes from the Latin word calumnia, which means trickery, slander. Why not use slander or libel? Several reasons: 1. slander is a spoken statement intended to hurt, libel is written, calumny could be either, and 2. slander and libel are accepted legal terms, calumny is not.



Since I mentioned slander and libel, let me say (like you can stop me) that their etymology is more interesting than any of our other words today. Slander has a long path to English, coming from the Middle English sclaunder, which came from the Anglo-French esclaundre (the Old French word on which it was based is either esclandre or esclandle) which came from the Ecclesiastic Late Latin word scandalum, from which we get scandal.



Libel was a Middle English word meaning "little book", and came through Old French (libelle)from the Latin word libellus, which also means "little book." How did it come to mean something that is a false and malicious written statement? Perhaps its use in Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Law, where it was used to refer to bringing suit against by presenting a written statement of grievances is responsible. At any rate, by the 1300s it came to refer to a plaintiff's statement of charges.


Mendacity is the quality of being untrue, lying or false. It also comes from a Latin word (mendax - lying, deceitful) which is related to the Latin word menda (fault, defect) that comes from an Indo-European base (mend-) which means a flaw or shortcoming. Mend is the base word for the Latin word emendare, from which we get the word emend, which is the word for making a correction to a text. Mendacity is something that is wrong, has a flaw, and needs correcting. It still retains some uncertainty whether the untruth was intentional or not. It is a relatively late addition to the English language, coming in the 1600s.

Perfidy is not about kindness. The word comes through the Middle French from the Latin phrase per fidia, which is a short form of per fidem decipere that means "to deceive through faith". It's only a decade older than the word mendacity, having entered English in the 1590s. Perfidy, when used most accurately, describes when someone breaks a trust or deliberately breaks faith with someone. It is treachery with an element of deception (which is why I include it in this subject.)

So before using calumny, perfidy, slander, or libel, make sure you're ready to back up your contention, perhaps even in court. And for goodness sake, don't engage in any of these things; instead, if I can quote Michael Jackson (and why not? It may be my only chance in a blog on words) "heal the world, make it a better place."