White lies, polite lies [ Reading & Writing / Communication ]
… (Catholic University Press, 1952), ch. 2, p. 54, 86. In his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson defined the ‘lie’ variously as either a ‘criminal falsehood’, a ‘charge of falsehood’ or simply ‘a fiction’. 3 If James Boswell is to be believed, Johnson himself generally used the term rather loosely in his own third sense in conversation, indicating a story that … a ‘cant word used by children’ according to the lexicographer, could be either a lie or a falsehood (‘lie’, Samuel Johnson’s Dictionnary, accessed on 15 December 2022. https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=lie.) 4 . …
Conversation | Falsehood | Lies | Politeness
Encyclopedia