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June 24, 2011

Strange But True!

Q. When might an outright lie feel like something less than fibbing or prevarication?

A. When you're able to get away with calling it “terminological inexactitude,” as did Winston Churchill when he coined the phrase and warned fellow Parliamentarians about its risk, says Ralph Keyes in “Euphemania.” In time, his phrase became a popular euphemism for “a lie.” Some years later, Britain's Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong created an uproar by admitting he'd been “economical with the truth” when testifying in a court case. Men in particular try to avoid giving other men the opportunity to say, “You callin' me a liar?,” which can get fists flying — or worse. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “liar” is “normally a violent expression of moral reprobation, which in polite conversation tends to be avoided.”


 
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