Regional or...?

Daehota · Feb 13, 2008

Is it "bold-faced liar" or "bald-faced liar?"

althrasher · Feb 13, 2008

I've heard it both ways, but mostly "Bald-faced."

Matera the Mad · Feb 13, 2008

Here's a goodie

WildScribe · Feb 13, 2008

I've always heard it bald.

Daehota · Feb 13, 2008

Strangely enough, they both make sense. Neither one is what you could call bad usage.

Hmmm

IceCreamEmpress · Feb 13, 2008

Daehota said:
Strangely enough, they both make sense. Neither one is what you could call bad usage.

The idiom is, correctly, a "bald-faced lie" (also, "a bare-faced lie"). However, the eggcorn variation "bold-faced lie" is very common. See the Eggcorn Database for more.

pdr · Feb 14, 2008

Must be...

American. I've never heard either, only the expression 'a barefaced liar'.

Bartholomew · Feb 14, 2008

What an odd expression.

Bufty · Feb 16, 2008

Ditto. 'Bare-faced liar or lies' is all I've ever heard. Google it.

pdr said:
American. I've never heard either, only the expression 'a barefaced liar'.

Daehota · Feb 16, 2008

The "bold-faced liar" must be a regional thing after all. Specifically, the wastelands of South Florida.

Thanks for all the opinions.

pdr · Feb 16, 2008

It seems...

to me that the alteration comes from someone trying to make sense of bare face and turning it into bold face to do so. Interesting isn't it?

IceCreamEmpress · Feb 16, 2008

pdr said:
to me that the alteration comes from someone trying to make sense of bare face and turning it into bold face to do so. Interesting isn't it?

It goes from "bald-faced" to "bold-faced". That's how eggcorns work--if the origin of a word isn't obvious, people will adapt it to a similar word that is more frequently used, and that sounds like it makes sense.

For example, many people write (and say) per se as per say, because they think per se means "so to say".

Similarly, "for all intensive purposes", because people use the word "intensive" fairly often, and the meaning of "for all intents and purposes" isn't obvious.

So someone hears "bald-faced liar" and then misremembers it as "bold-faced liar" because a) bald-faced liars are bold, and b) "bold-face" is a more commonly used word than "bald-faced".

Ravenlocks · Feb 17, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
For example, many people write (and say) per se as per say, because they think per se means "so to say".

Similarly, "for all intensive purposes", because people use the word "intensive" fairly often, and the meaning of "for all intents and purposes" isn't obvious.

These drive me nuts.

Regional or...?

Daehota

althrasher

Prodigal Muser

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount

Daehota

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

pdr

Bartholomew

Comic guy

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Daehota

pdr

IceCreamEmpress

Hapless Virago

Ravenlocks

How novel.