Wednesday 20 February 2013

Mendacious

Withenay's Wednesday Word - a series about words and their meanings. 
Sometimes the word is chosen because I like it, sometimes because it is unusual, sometimes because I have heard or read it in the previous week; often because that is just where the dictionary took me. Together we can expand our vocabulary, inch by inch (or maybe letter by letter). Your challenge is to invent a sentence in the comments box that includes it.


mendacious
lying (an adjective)
from Latin mendax, connected to mentiri to lie

Today's word was sparked by a twitter conversation between Carol and Mat (@carolJhedges and @lotharmat) that I happened upon (such is the glory of twitter!). Carol put this delightful word into a tweet (she deserves extra points just for that!) and Mat commented on what a lovely word it was. I agree!

Not that its meaning is so lovely: lying, inclined to be untruthful. How often have parents spotted that in their children? My personal bugbear is when I ask my two before they leave for school if they have brushed their teeth. "Yes," I get in response, the red rising in their cheeks and their terrified eyes saying otherwise.

And it allows me to sign off with an impossible sentence. I, of course, am never mendacious.

4 comments:

Mat said...

I would be tending toward mendacity if I were to say I was not pleased to feature in this blog post!

Thank you!

Catharine Withenay said...

You're welcome!

Carol Hedges said...

It would be mendacious of me to deny that I am equally flattered.

Rosalind Adam said...

Lovely word but why am I not surprised at the initiators of its inclusion on your blog!

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