Today's Word "Belie"
Published in Vocabulary
belie \beh-LI\ (verb) - To show to be false, contradict, to misrepresent, to give a false impression of. This verb is only rarely used to mean "to lie about" today.
"The grace and serenity of her bearing belied the hours of labor Jenna Beaufait had put into dressing, applying her make-up, and styling her wig."
Today's word shares an origin with lie "to speak falsely." It is from Old English belcogan from be- "about" + lcogan "to lie." In Russian the same root gave lozh "a lie" and lgat' "to lie," in German it produced lugen "to lie" and, in Swedish, ljuga "to lie," Of course, male witches are known to lie when it suits them. They are called "warlocks." This word comes from Old English w¿rloga "oath-breaker" (literally, oath-liar) from w¿r "pledge, oath" + loga "liar," from the same root as today's word.
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