Confabulated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Making up or distorting information while recounting experiences during discussions
2. Participating in informal dialogue that may consist of inventive storytelling or altered memories
3. Taking part in casual talk or discussion with others ; creating inaccurate or invented details in memory or story

Etymology: Confabulate once meant nothing more sinister than chatting. Its earliest English use, around 1623, described people talking together in a friendly way, and the root is Latin "confabulari," formed from "con-" (together) and "fabulari" (to talk), itself from "fabula," a story or tale. The Latin sense was conversational, so the word started out as a pleasant, sociable verb rather than one about错 recollection. The second meaning came much later and reverses the mood entirely. In psychology and neurology, confabulation describes the process by which a person, often with memory damage, fills gaps in their recall with invented details that they sincerely believe. The shift from gossiping together to unknowingly fabricating happened because "fabula" carried the notion of a story, and a story is easily made up. The modern verb therefore holds both senses: the easy talk of two people chatting, and the mind producing a plausible tale to cover what it cannot remember.

Synonyms: fabricated, invented, contrived

Antonyms: revealed, disclosed