to authenticate a lie

November 16, 2013 2:50 PM

Is there a word that means to corroborate a lie? For example if one person says the sky is green and then another person confirms that they sky is green. Or is there a legal term for this as well in the sense of lying about statutes?
posted by skwint to Writing & Language (13 answers total)

Aiding and abetting?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:57 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Abet" would work.
posted by griphus at 2:57 PM on November 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

Collusion, conspire.
posted by theora55 at 3:28 PM on November 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

In Solomon Asch's conformity studies, he'd have a eight people compare the length of a line to three baselines. Seven people were secretly confederates working for Asch. They would unanimously make a correct or incorrect assessment of the line's length to see whether the eight person—the only true subject—would go along with the group.

The dictionary definition of confederating is a little loose but may fit your needs.
posted by JackBurden at 4:52 PM on November 16, 2013

Collude.
posted by alms at 5:40 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

I came to second conspire.
posted by OHenryPacey at 5:43 PM on November 16, 2013

suborn
posted by effluvia at 5:56 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

gaslighting
posted by ajr at 6:28 PM on November 16, 2013

Best answer: I believe in lying (as in I believe in this statement, not the act of doing so) by omission and by commission. Commission means actively telling the lie, omission means not saying what you know is the truth, therefore "performing a lie" without actively saying something untruthful (just avoiding stating the actual truth).
posted by bquarters at 7:46 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: thanks for the answers. But is there a specific word like "corroborate" or "authenticate" that actually means to corroborate a lie. I was thinking more along the lines of pretended/ simulated/ purport/ ... For example if an art expert claimed a painting was done my Van Gogh.
posted by skwint at 8:03 PM on November 16, 2013

Response by poster: ... (although he knew it was a fake)
posted by skwint at 8:04 PM on November 16, 2013

Best answer: Confabricate.

Too bad it's not an actual word.

I also like "conmendicate", which, sadly, is also not a real word. How about going to the Greek — "sympseudomize"? Nope not a word either.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:22 PM on November 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You may like the concepts of obreption and subreption. Originally Roman law, they continued in use within Catholic canon law. Obreption is "a positive allegation of what is false", while subreption is essentially lying by omission, or direct concealment of facts or evidence.
posted by dhartung at 11:22 PM on November 16, 2013 [4 favorites]