Bare-Faced Oops
Once again, the Language Police have made a false arrest, but this time the Keystone Kop was me. Last week, I mocked a commenter for both (1) defending a Molly Ivins column that even Molly Ivins doesn’t defend and (2) botching the English language by committing 14 spelling or grammar errors in the space of 9 sentences. Most of the original charges stand, but one does not: I had corrected his use of the phrase bold-face lie, which I had long presumed to be a bastardization of bald-faced lie. According to this site, however, both phrases are equally “incorrect,” as both are bastardizations of bare-faced lie. My aunt also looked up the phrases in Merriam-Webster, which traces bold-faced lie all the way back to 1591, almost as far back as the original bare-faced lie, but can only trace bald-faced lie to 1943. I’ll add a link later if/when I find it on the web. [UPDATE: Try this.]
July 14th, 2005 at 2:13 pm
A turn of phrase (“bald-faced lie”) in common use for sixty years cannot really be called “incorrect”; at least not in English.
Next you’ll be telling me it’s really wrong to split an infinitive, and not just a Victorian orthographic superstition based on the faulty belief that English should be Latin, not Germanic.
July 14th, 2005 at 2:25 pm
I’m not saying “bald-faced lie” is incorrect. It still sounds better to me. All I am saying is that “bold-faced lie” is at least as legitimate, if not more so. It’s also better for double entendres, since there is no “bald-faced” font attribute with which to type one’s lies.
July 14th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
But “bald-faced” can be double entendric (yes, I just adjectived a noun. I also occasionally verb nouns.) when used in the caption of a picture. Say of James Carville.
July 14th, 2005 at 7:32 pm
There is an extraneous word in the first point in sentence two (or some other wrong word).
Normally I wouldn’t mention, um, it, but Language Police posts get special scrutiny.
July 14th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
Well, yeah, Kevin’s right. This being a language-police post and all, I should also point out that your first sentence containst a plural subject with a singular predicate.
July 15th, 2005 at 1:31 am
My head is spinning.
I find this site helpful.
Common Errors in English.
July 15th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Whardewyouseguys getcher knowledge uh slang?
“Bald-faced lie” is very old, it pre-dates bold-face type, and the original version is “bare-face(d) lie.”
“Bold-face lie” is a later version referring to bold-face type. Of course it refers not to a lie obvious or exposed (bare-faced) but to a bold lie.
July 15th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
That’s what I had previously thought myself, but these sources say no. Do you have a source of your own?
July 15th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
Then there is the proportional-spaced lie…
July 15th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
And here I always thought it was balledd-faced…
July 17th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
xrlq, sorry, I just saw your reply, must have missed it the other day.
Yeah, there are sources, I’ve got to go back and find them, and will do that for you.
Later!
March 26th, 2006 at 9:12 am
I just spent twenty minutes arguing with my husband about this topic. He insisted that the correct phrase was “bold-faced lie” and I corrected him. I told him it was “bald-faced lie.” I am rarely incorrect =) in any way. If I must be wrong, however, I am glad he is as well.