fallacious

English

Etymology

From Old French fallacieux (whence -acious), from Latin fallācia, from fallāx, from fallere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fəˈleɪ.ʃəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

Adjective

fallacious (comparative more fallacious, superlative most fallacious)

1. Characterized by fallacy; false or mistaken.

   Synonyms: erroneous, incorrect, wrong; see also Thesaurus:false

   Antonyms: accurate, correct, true

   Hyponyms: specious, spurious

   • 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 3:

     There is a widely diffused notion that among all specimens of animal creation man alone possesses any glimmering of reason. This notion is largely fallacious. It is one of those ideas, based upon superficial knowledge, which appeal to the sophisticated modern public.

2. Deceptive or misleading.

   Synonyms: deceitful, deceiving, mendacious, misdirective

Derived terms

• fallaciously
• fallaciousness
• nonfallacious
• unfallacious

Related terms

• fail
• failure
• fallacy
• fallibilism
• fallibilist
• fallibility
• fallible
• false
• falsifiable
• falsification
• falsificator
• falsifier
• falsify
• falsity

Collocations

Nouns often used with "fallacious"

• argument, notion, reasoning, etc.

Translations

characterized by fallacy; false or mistaken — see also erroneous

• Bulgarian: погрешен (bg) (pogrešen), измамен (bg) (izmamen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 謬誤的 / 谬误的

• Dutch: bedrieglijk (nl)
• Finnish: virheellinen (fi), paikkansapitämätön, (literary, poetic) erheellinen (fi)
• French: fallacieux (fr)
• Irish: fallásach
• Kyrgyz: жаңылыштык (ky) (jaŋılıştık), ката (ky) (kata)
• Latin: falsus
• Māori: hāwatewate, tipatipa
• Polish: mylny (pl), chybiony (pl)
• Portuguese: falacioso (pt)
• Russian: оши́бочный (ru) (ošíbočnyj)
• Sicilian: fausu (scn), sbagghiatu (scn)
• Spanish: falaz (es)
• Swedish: felaktig (sv)
• Turkish: yanlış (tr), yanılgılı

deceptive or misleading

• Bulgarian: неверен (bg) (neveren), лъжлив (bg) (lǎžliv)
• Finnish: harhaanjohtava (fi), pettävä (fi), erehdyttävä (fi)
• German: irreführend (de), trügerisch (de)
• Latin: fallāx
• Portuguese: erróneo (pt)
• Russian: ло́жный (ru) (lóžnyj), обма́нчивый (ru) (obmánčivyj)
• Turkish: aldatıcı (tr), yanıltıcı (tr)

See also

• deluded
• delusive
• faulty
• illogical
• illusive
• illusory

References

• “fallacious”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• “fallacious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “fallacious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “fallacious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Middle English

Etymology

From fallace +‎ -ous.

Adjective

fallacious

1. fallacious
   • [1473 or 1474], The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, Composed and Drawen out of Dyuerce Bookes of Latyn in to Frensshe, [Bruges]: [William Caxton and, probably, Colard Mansion]:

     And I shall not assoylle oonly oon of thy sophymes / but as many as thou canst thynke / and wole well that thou knowe that yf by force of thy sophymes and fallacious argumentes thou make me Innocent / I shall doo vnto the lyke as thou woldest do to me / and yf hit happe that thy scyence may not ouercome me / yet woll I well that thou defende the with armes. and that thou kepe thy lyf as well as thou canst {etc}::. Wyth these wordes the monstre maad vnto hercules seuen sofymes oon after an other so fallacio{us} and fo subtyll / that whan hercules had gyuen solucion to oon / the monstre replyed by seuen argumentes / Allway hercules that was full of philosophie and expert in all scyence. Answerd so solempnly to all his fallacious argumentes that he surmoũted hym

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: fallacious