Hillary's "BOLD FACED LIES"

bald-faced lie

An idiom that means, ostensibly, an untruth with no hair on its face, and refers to a particularly egregious lie. As amusing as this mental image is, it's incorrect. Well, I shouldn't say that--after all, usage determines meaning--but it's not the original intent of the phrase. The original phrase was "bold-faced lie." Before you picture a lie with fluorescent clown makeup (oops, too late!), you should know that this refers to printing. As in, boldface type. But a bold-faced lie is not just "any lie which has been printed in bold face," e.g.


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I checked these on Westlaw. "Barefaced lie" is just a special case of "barefaced." From 1800: "Is there any instance in which strict law will suffer its rules and provisions to be eluded by such bareface subterfuge?" Mayo v. Bentley, 8 Va. (4 Call) 528 (1800). For "barefaced lie" specifically, here's an 1844 use:

>>The first count . . . avers, that in this conversation the defendant uttered of the plaintiff these false and scandalous words: "Hunter swore a point blank lie to clear William Sally of stealing honey." The second count . . . charges the words spoken to be: "Joe Hunter swore a barefaced lie on Sally's case."<<

Palmer v. Hunter, 8 Mo. 512 (1844).
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"Bald-faced" was a reasonably common term in the 19th century in reference to animals. I suppose that it means having a white face (although when I lived on a farm, we just referred to these animals as "white-face"). The earliest use I've seen as a synonym for "barefaced" is from 1893: "Courts of justice cannot be expected to sanction such bald-faced wrong." Mann v. Poole, 40 S.C. 1, 18 S.E. 145, 149 (1893).

For "bald-faced lie" specifically, the earliest use was in a 1961 trial (quoted in a 1965 court opinion): "We've been talking about inconsistency and contradictions but Mr. Collins told us a bald faced lie right here in the courtroom." Collins v. Shishido, 48 Haw. 411, 419, 405 P.2d 323, 329 (1965). Since then, however, it seems to have become fairly common. There were 61 uses of "bald-faced lie" (including variants of "bald-faced") since 1970, compared to only 8 uses of "barefaced lie."

The truth is this: both are used, and so is barefaced. Bald-faced is the newest term; its first known print appearance dates back only 62 years, to 1943. Bold-faced is some four centuries older than that, dating to 1591. Although you might guess bald-faced developed out of a mishearing of bold-faced, the meanings of the two adjectives are not synonymous. Bold-faced means "bold in manner or conduct; impudent"; bald-faced has the same meaning as barefaced: "open; unconcealed"; and "having or showing a lack of scruples."
John Baker
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