▪ I. liar
(ˈlaɪə(r))
Forms: 1 léoᵹere, Northumb. léᵹere, 2 li(h)ȝere, 3 lieȝer, liare, 3–4 leier, 3–5 lyere, 3–6 lier, (4 ly(e)ȝere, lyȝer, liȝer, leeȝer, leigher, liere, liyher), 4–5 legher(e, ligher, lygher, lyare, 4–6 Sc. lear, 4–7 lyer, 5–8 lyar, (7 lyarr), 7– liar.
[OE. léoᵹere (= OHG. liugari, Icel. lj{uacu}gari), agent-n. f. léoᵹan lie v.2 See -ar3, -er1 2.]
a. One who lies or tells a falsehood; an untruthful person. I'm a liar, (in trivial use) I am mistaken.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vi. 5 Mið ðy ᵹie ᵹebiddas ne wosas ᵹe suæ leᵹeras [other versions liceteras; L. hypocritæ]. a 1023 Wulfstan Hom. (Napier) 79 Up arisað lease leoᵹeras. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 13 Ne beo þu lihȝere ne for eye ne for luue. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 333/362 A strong liare and man of false lawe. 1340 Ayenb. 62 Þe lyeȝere is ylich þe dyeule þet is his uader. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 260 (309) Auauntoure and a lyere al is on. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 422 Quhedir he a lele man or a lear be. c 1400 Destr. Troy 12590 Thus lytherly þo lyghers lappit þere tales. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. xvii. (1859) 18 He..hath ben found an open lyer. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xx. xiv, They that told yow the tales were lyers. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 25 He is ane lear and in him thair is na verite. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 51 Of all Writers vnder the sunne, the Poet is the least lier. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 466 Poets are lyars, and for verses sake Will make the gods of humane crimes partake. a 1764 Lloyd Ep. to J.B. Esq. Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 96 Who are known lyars by profession. 1782 V. Knox Ess. (1819) I. ii. 12 An habitual liar..must possess a poor and pusillanimous heart. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, ‘Now tell me I'm a liar’, said the honest man. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 359 You are a liar, Meletus, not believed even by yourself. 1940 Sunday Express 31 Mar. 3/5 ‘That's not my brother Sid you met in here last Thursday. Or was it Friday?’ We said we didn't remember... ‘I'm a liar. It was Wednesday.’ 1972 W. Garner Ditto, Brother Rat! xv. 105 Last winter, was it? No, I'm a liar. The spring. That's right. |
| Proverbs. c 1250 Ten Abuses in O.E. Misc. 184 Old mon lechur, Ȝunch mon lieȝer [2nd text lyere]. 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 35 A lyer ought not to be forgetfull. a 1555 Latimer in Godly Confer. w. Ridley (1556) b 2 b, Lyers had nede to haue good memories. 1631 Chettle Hoffmann I 2 b, Lyer, lyer, licke dish. |
b. liar's bench (see quot.).
| 1859 Nares, Liars'-bench, a place in St. Paul's Cathedral in the sixteenth century, so called because it was stated that the disaffected made appointments there. |
c. attrib. or adj. Lying, deceitful. liar dice, a gambling game resembling poker dice, in which the thrower conceals the dice thrown and sometimes declares a false score; also ellipt. (in pl.).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 6819 Tak þou noght wit tunge leier. 1946 J. Scarne On Dice (ed. 2) xvii. 386 Liar or Doubting Dice. A popular game on transpacific liners and in the Far East, it is now gaining rapidly in popularity in the United States. 1956 M. McMinnies Flying Fox i. iv. 55 Everybody was round the bar playing liar dice. 1959 R. Kirkbride Tamiko v. 37 ‘Which do you play, Balin?’ ‘Which?’ ‘Liars, Horses, Cameroon—.’ ‘I don't play dice.’ 1966 O. Norton School of Liars i. 2, I spent two months in graduating from the empty lounge to the bar, two more in..reaching the inner group, the liar-dice school. Ibid. ii. 23 We sat there playing liars until twenty past two. 1971 C. Bonington Annapurna South Face ix. 107 After the meal we played liar dice or Scrabble, with our tape-recorder blasting out music in the background. |
d. the liar (Logic): the name of the paradox involved in a speaker's statement that he is lying or is a (habitual) liar; so liar paradox, paradox of the liar.
| 1871 T. M. Lindsay tr. Ueberweg's Syst. Logic v. §77. 245 This case happens when, and only when, the truth of the judgment is itself the object of the judgment, or belongs to the object of the judgment. The ancients have empirically discovered this case, without..giving an account of its logical nature. What is called ‘The Liar’ represents it. Epimenides, the Cretan, says, all the Cretans are liars. 1906 J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 4) App. B. 457 The sophism known as Ψενδόµενος or The Liar. 1908 B. Russell in Amer. Jrnl. Math. XXX. 240 Hence his statement is false, and yet its falsehood does not imply, as that of ‘I am lying’ appeared to do, that he is making a true statement. This solves the liar. 1940 ― Inquiry into Meaning & Truth iv. 62 The inference from the paradox of the liar is.. as follows. 1959 E. W. Beth Found. Math. vi. xvii. 485 The natural first reaction to the liar paradox is to ascribe the contradiction to the fact that the statement involved refers to itself. 1967 Encycl. Philos. V. 46/1 But one, the Liar,..is still of great interest to us. 1970 R. L. Martin (title) The paradox of the liar. 1971 Philos. XLVI. 133 (heading) Tarski, Frege, and the liar paradox. |
▪ II. liar
variant of lyar Sc. Obs.