lügen

See also: lugen and Lügen

German

From Middle High German liegen, from Old High German liogan, from Proto-Germanic *leuganą, from Proto-Indo-European *lewgʰ-. The expected form is early modern German liegen; that with -ü- has been standardized to avoid homophony with unrelated liegen (“to lie, be in a horizontal position”). The vowel is due, on one hand, to irregular rounding after l-, which is common in some dialects, and on the other hand to the inherited 2nd and 3rd person-singular present forms (in non-diphthongizing dialects such as (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Alemannic German). The form was also reinforced by the nouns Lug and Lüge. Compare Low German legen, lögen, Dutch liegen, English lie, Danish lyve, Swedish ljuga.

(intransitive) to tell a lie; to lie (to intentionally give false information)
(intransitive, less often) to give false information (unintentionally)
Wie alt sind Sie? — Ehm... lassen Sie mich nicht lügen... Zweiunddreißig.
How old are you? — Er... don’t let me tell you something wrong... Thirty-two.