| 释义 |
▪ I. liar|ˈlaɪə(r)|
Forms: 1 léoᵹere, Northumb. léᵹere, 2 li(h)ȝere, 3 lieȝer, liare, 3–4 leier, 3–5 lyere, 3–6 lier, (4 ly(e)ȝere, lyȝer, liȝer, leeȝer, leigher, liere, liyher), 4–5 legher(e, ligher, lygher, lyare, 4–6 Sc. lear, 4–7 lyer, 5–8 lyar, (7 lyarr), 7– liar.
[OE. léoᵹere (= OHG. liugari, Icel. ljúgari), agent-n. f. léoᵹan lie v.2 See -ar3, -er1 2.]
a. One who lies or tells a falsehood; an untruthful person. I'm a liar, (in trivial use) I am mistaken.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vi. 5 Mið ðy ᵹie ᵹebiddas ne wosas ᵹe suæ leᵹeras [other versions liceteras; L. hypocritæ]. a1023Wulfstan Hom. (Napier) 79 Up arisað lease leoᵹeras. c1175Lamb. Hom. 13 Ne beo þu lihȝere ne for eye ne for luue. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 333/362 A strong liare and man of false lawe. 1340Ayenb. 62 Þe lyeȝere is ylich þe dyeule þet is his uader. c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 260 (309) Auauntoure and a lyere al is on. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 422 Quhedir he a lele man or a lear be. c1400Destr. Troy 12590 Thus lytherly þo lyghers lappit þere tales. 1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. xvii. (1859) 18 He..hath ben found an open lyer. 1470–85Malory Arthur xx. xiv, They that told yow the tales were lyers. 1552Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 25 He is ane lear and in him thair is na verite. 1581Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 51 Of all Writers vnder the sunne, the Poet is the least lier. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 466 Poets are lyars, and for verses sake Will make the gods of humane crimes partake. a1764Lloyd Ep. to J.B. Esq. Poet. Wks. 1774 I. 96 Who are known lyars by profession. 1782V. Knox Ess. (1819) I. ii. 12 An habitual liar..must possess a poor and pusillanimous heart. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, ‘Now tell me I'm a liar’, said the honest man. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 359 You are a liar, Meletus, not believed even by yourself. 1940Sunday Express 31 Mar. 3/5 ‘That's not my brother Sid you met in here last Thursday. Or was it Friday?’ We said we didn't remember... ‘I'm a liar. It was Wednesday.’ 1972W. Garner Ditto, Brother Rat! xv. 105 Last winter, was it? No, I'm a liar. The spring. That's right.
Proverbs.c1250Ten Abuses in O.E. Misc. 184 Old mon lechur, Ȝunch mon lieȝer [2nd text lyere]. 1539Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 35 A lyer ought not to be forgetfull. a1555Latimer in Godly Confer. w. Ridley (1556) b 2 b, Lyers had nede to haue good memories. 1631Chettle Hoffmann I 2 b, Lyer, lyer, licke dish.
b. liar's bench (see quot.).
1859Nares, Liars'-bench, a place in St. Paul's Cathedral in the sixteenth century, so called because it was stated that the disaffected made appointments there.
c. attrib. or adj. Lying, deceitful. liar dice, a gambling game resembling poker dice, in which the thrower conceals the dice thrown and sometimes declares a false score; also ellipt. (in pl.).
a1300Cursor M. 6819 Tak þou noght wit tunge leier. 1946J. Scarne On Dice (ed. 2) xvii. 386 Liar or Doubting Dice. A popular game on transpacific liners and in the Far East, it is now gaining rapidly in popularity in the United States. 1956M. McMinnies Flying Fox i. iv. 55 Everybody was round the bar playing liar dice. 1959R. Kirkbride Tamiko v. 37 ‘Which do you play, Balin?’ ‘Which?’ ‘Liars, Horses, Cameroon—.’ ‘I don't play dice.’ 1966O. Norton School of Liars i. 2, I spent two months in graduating from the empty lounge to the bar, two more in..reaching the inner group, the liar-dice school. Ibid. ii. 23 We sat there playing liars until twenty past two. 1971C. Bonington Annapurna South Face ix. 107 After the meal we played liar dice or Scrabble, with our tape-recorder blasting out music in the background.
d. the liar (Logic): the name of the paradox involved in a speaker's statement that he is lying or is a (habitual) liar; so liar paradox, paradox of the liar.
1871T. M. Lindsay tr. Ueberweg's Syst. Logic v. §77. 245 This case happens when, and only when, the truth of the judgment is itself the object of the judgment, or belongs to the object of the judgment. The ancients have empirically discovered this case, without..giving an account of its logical nature. What is called ‘The Liar’ represents it. Epimenides, the Cretan, says, all the Cretans are liars. 1906J. N. Keynes Stud. & Exerc. Formal Logic (ed. 4) App. B. 457 The sophism known as Ψενδόµενος or The Liar. 1908B. Russell in Amer. Jrnl. Math. XXX. 240 Hence his statement is false, and yet its falsehood does not imply, as that of ‘I am lying’ appeared to do, that he is making a true statement. This solves the liar. 1940― Inquiry into Meaning & Truth iv. 62 The inference from the paradox of the liar is.. as follows. 1959E. W. Beth Found. Math. vi. xvii. 485 The natural first reaction to the liar paradox is to ascribe the contradiction to the fact that the statement involved refers to itself. 1967Encycl. Philos. V. 46/1 But one, the Liar,..is still of great interest to us. 1970R. L. Martin (title) The paradox of the liar. 1971Philos. XLVI. 133 (heading) Tarski, Frege, and the liar paradox.
▪ II. liar
variant of lyar Sc. Obs. |