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Liar (The)

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Al Aswad, who set himself up as a prophet against Mahomet. He was called the Weathercock because he changed his creed so often, the Impostor, and the Liar.

Moseilma, another contemporary, who affirmed that the “belly is the seat of the soul.” He wrote to Mahomet, and began his letter: “From Moseilma, prophet of Allah, to Mahomet, prophet of Allah,” and received for answer a letter beginning thus: “From Mahomet the prophet of God, to Moseilma the Liar.” (Anglo-Saxon, leõg-an, to tell a falsehood; but to be recumbent is lieg-an or lig-an.)

Prince of Liars. Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese traveller, whose narrative is so much after Munchausen’s style, that Cervantes dubbed him “Prince of Liars.” The Tatler called him a man “of infinite adventure and unbounded imagination.”

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Lewis (Monk)
Lewis Baboon
Lewkner’s Lane
Lex non Scripta
Lex Talionis (Latin)
Leyden Jar or Phial
Leze Majesty
Li-Flambe
Lia-fail (of Ireland)
Liakura
Liar (The)
Libel
Liber Albus
Liber Niger or The Black Book of the Exchequer
Liberal Arts
Liberal Unionists or Tory Democrats
Liberal Unionists
Liberals
Liberator (The)
Liberia
Libertines