Feign

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /feɪn/

Definitions

1. To pretend or make a false appearance of having a particular feeling, quality, or illness in order to deceive
2. To exhibit a false semblance of a feeling, ability, or state in order to mislead or deceive another person
3. To simulate or put on an act of a sensation, condition, or attitude without truly experiencing it

Etymology: The most striking thing about "feign" is that its Latin ancestor, "fingere", meant "to form, shape, invent" and said nothing about deception. A potter shaping clay and a writer inventing a story were both doing "fingere". The sense of pretending drifted in through the notion of making something up, which is why the word still sits close to kin like "fiction" and "figment", both of which keep that shaping-and-inventing core. The word reached English in Middle English as "feynen" and "feinen", borrowed from Old French "feindre", meaning "to pretend". The same Latin root gave English "feint", a move designed to deceive an opponent, and the two words are close relatives that took different paths into the language.

Synonyms: pretend, simulate, act

Antonyms: reveal, disclose