# Why does "liar" have no simple antonym? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544 "2005-04-28T13:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/21 "2005-04-28T16:58:42Z")
OK, that was weird. I was responding to “Does no one remember Nancy Sinatra?” but I guess that was the title, and didn’t make it into the quote…bastard. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/22 "2005-04-28T16:59:58Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Yeah, but at the bottom noun level, there is a pair of antonyms – “truth” and “lie.” > > Why did “person who tells a lie” get its own noun form but “person who tells the truth” didn’t? I don’t know that I consider “truth” and “lie” to be a pair of antonyms. A lie is a single false statement, told with intent to deceive. The truth is _not_ a single true statement – note that it’s **a** lie and **the** truth – because lie is a count noun and truth is a mass noun. I can’t think of a single word that means the exact opposite of lie, i.e. “truthful statement”, which is why (I believe) that there isn’t a single word meaning the opposite of “to lie”. On preview: I knew someone would bring up an idiomatic use of _truthing_. Did not know it would be Nancy Sinatra, but cool. I believe that we could all agree that in English you can verb any noun (See what I did there?), but that doesn’t necessarily make it correct yet. “To truth” would be understood by most speakers, but I would not say that it has entered correct, educated usage. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/23 "2005-04-28T17:14:40Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > “To truth” would be understood by most speakers, but I would not say that it has entered correct, educated usage. Who is the authority that says something has “entered correct, educate usage,” and who profers that authority? ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/24 "2005-04-28T17:23:24Z")
> [@etmiller](#): > > Who is the authority that says something has “entered correct, educate usage,” and who profers that authority? Um, in English (as I suspect you’re already aware), no one has such authority. We don’t have an institution such as the Real Academia Española to proclaim ‘correct’ English from on high. However, I’m certain that we can agree that it is not yet common to see “to truth” in use in the field. If the use of “truth” as a verb gains currency among speakers of SAE, it becomes by definition correct. I know what you’re trying to imply, but I am not a prescriptivist by any means. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/25 "2005-04-28T17:44:01Z")
> [@Bambi Hassenpfeffer](#): > > I don’t know that I consider “truth” and “lie” to be a pair of antonyms. A lie is a single false statement, told with intent to deceive. The truth is _not_ a single true statement – note that it’s **a** lie and **the** truth – because lie is a count noun and truth is a mass noun. Whoa. Without opening that whole epistemological can of worms – I think we can agree that it is possible for each of a series of statements is either true or false, i.e., either “the truth” or “a lie.” For instance, I might say: 1. I live in Philadelphia 2. I am a truck driver 3. My favorite color is green 4. I had chicken soup for lunch Of these statements, #1 is “the truth,” #2 is “a lie,” #3 is “the truth” and #4 is “a lie.” Why I would want to lie – what it “means” to have a favorite color – what your definition of the word “is” is – etc., — are all irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, in day-to-day usage, I made two true statements and true false, or lying, statements, so I “truthed” twice and I “lied” twice. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/26 "2005-04-28T18:07:45Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I think we can agree that it is possible for each of a series of statements is either true or false, i.e., either “the truth” or “a lie.” Well, no. The opposite of truth in this case is falsity, not a lie. To lie is not to say something false: it’s to deceive by saying something you believe to be false. I can say something false without lying: by being mistaken. If I say that the capital of South Carolina is Charleston (it’s Columbia), I would not be telling the truth, but I wouldn’t necessarily be lying, i.e. attempting to deceive the interlocutor into believing that it’s Charleston. (Interestingly, some Native American languages have a system of verb markers that require the speaker to qualify the statement according to its source and veracity. If you say something false using the “it is said” marker, it is considered a mistake; if you say something false using the “I know this to be true” marker, it is considered a lie.) ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/27 "2005-04-28T18:23:47Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > . . . there’s no opposite of “murder” (the noun). “crow free” ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/28 "2005-04-28T18:29:52Z")
**matt\_mcl** – very cool. Thanks. I think you answered the the question I should have been asking. And **Trunk** – 😛 ! ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544/29 "2005-04-28T18:55:39Z")
Etymologically, isn’t ‘soothsayer’ a person who tells the truth? The word doesn’t carry that meaning anymore, of course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-liar-have-no-simple-antonym/301544.md?page=1)