Disembler

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who hides their real motives or emotions behind a false appearance or deceptive manner
2. Someone who pretends and misrepresents what they really think, feel, or intend in order to mislead others
3. One given to concealing the truth about their character or purpose through feigned behavior and speech

Etymology: The root of this word is a verb that once meant nearly the opposite of what it means now. "Dissemble" comes from Old French "dessembler," formed from "des-," a prefix meaning apart or away, and "sembler," to seem. Behind that lies Latin "similare," to make like, from "similis," like. So the verb's earliest sense was roughly "to be unlike" or "to appear otherwise," and only later did it come to mean concealing one's real intentions or feelings under a false appearance. The noun is simply the verb plus the agent suffix "-er," the same pattern that gives "singer" from "sing." It names the person who performs that concealment. Because "disembler" is a rare formation, it appears far less often in writing than "dissembler," the more common spelling, and dictionaries treat the two as variants of one word.

Synonyms: dissembler, deceiver, liar