Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1754-1797
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FALSEHOOD, n. Sc. Law: the fraudulent imitation or suppression of truth, to the prejudice of another (Sc. 1699 Sir G. Mackenzie Laws and Customs Scot. 134), in a wider sense including such crimes as forgery, fraud, perjury; now mostly in phr. falsehood, fraud and wilful imposition, “the crime which consists, substantially, in obtaining by false pretences” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 35).Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles iv. iv. § 34:
That particular species of falsehood, which consists in the falsifying of writings, passes by the name of forgery.Sc. 1797 D. Hume Punishment for Crimes I. 195:
A great variety of transgressions, all of which are, however, naturally reducible to the one head of Falsehood, or crimen falsi; a point of criminal accusation thoroughly established in the Roman law.
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"Falsehood n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 6 May 2026 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/falsehood>
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