Wednesday, January 9, 2013

pseudology

pseudology \soo-DOL-uh-jee\, noun:

Lying considered as an art.

For example, listening to the life history account of András Albert, a Transylvanian lumberman, the outsider may wonder how to distinguish fact from fiction, poetry from lie, and how to regard the relationship between pseudology and storytelling.
-- Linda Dégh, Narratives in Society
So many people would love to get their hands on a machine that can inhibit pseudology, mendacity and falsehood. The police, Intelligence services, all sorts and conditions of interested agencies and institutions.
-- Stephen Fry, The Liar

Pseudology comes from two Greek roots, pseudo- meaning "false" and -logy meaning "study of." The word does not literally mean "the study of lying" but has come to embody the sense of "the art of lying."

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