Falser

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Being in a state of deception or dishonesty while also serving as a contrast to truthfulness
2. Representing a lesser degree of being untrue or misleading in nature
3. Acting in a manner that is characterized by betrayal or untrustworthiness toward others

Etymology: "Falser" is simply the comparative of "false", so its history is the history of its base word. "False" comes from Latin "falsus", the past participle of "fallere", meaning "to deceive", which is why the root sense carries a trace of trickery. English took the word into Middle English from Anglo-Norman and Old French "fals" and "faus", reinforcing the Old English "fals" that already meant "counterfeit, fraudulent, wrong, mistaken." Along the way, "false" pushed out an older native word, "lease" (Old English "lēas"), meaning "false" in the same sense. Many English speakers today know "lease" only as a rental contract, a use that developed from a different branch of the same root. "False" and "faux" are doublets, two forms of one Latin word that reached English by different routes.

Antonyms: truer, more honest, sincerer, more genuine