White lies, polite lies [ Reading & Writing / Communication ]
… Résumé ‘I wish that word fib was banished from the English language, and white lie drummed out after it,’ exclaim s Miss Clarendon, a scrupulously honest character in Maria Edgeworth’s Helen (1811) . Then … believed themselves to be entertaining were met with ‘universal blame’ instead. 6 3 . A ‘fib’, a ‘cant word used by children’ according to the lexicographer, could be either a lie or a falsehood (‘lie’, Samuel Johnson’s Dictionnary, accessed … seen as a refusal to perform in the role(s) appointed by polite society. Diaries and journals such as those of Frances Burney or Hester Thrale illustrate occasions on which women used polite lies in conversation. These occasions might be …
Conversation | Falsehood | Lies | Politeness
Encyclopedia