Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A clear or self-evident falsity; a statement or assertion the falsity of which is plainly apparent: opposed to truism.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun That which is evidently false; an assertion or statement the falsity of which is plainly apparent; -- opposed to
truism .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A claim that is
self-evidently false, commonly used arhetorical device .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
false + -ism modelled after truism
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Examples
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His manner is aped by those who find an easy path to notoriety in imitation; the belief he held near his heart is worn as a creed like a badge; the truth he promulgated is distorted in a room of mirrors, half of it is a truism, the other half a falsism.
Thomas Carlyle John Nichol 1863
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In response to Wilkinson’s (I thought unexceptionable) assertion that people value things other than — and often more highly than — happiness, DeLong objected, not just that Will had said something substantively wrong, but made some kind of semantic error, asserting a tautological falsehood (what we used to call a “falsism” in debate):
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