mensonge

le mensonge (FR N-M) lie, an assertion contrary to truth, made deliberately to deceive or trick; action of lying; (art) fiction; trickery, illusion. Regrettable as lying may be morally, it is an ancient all-too-human strategy. In ancient English courts, truth was tested by ordeals of fire and/or water, in the belief that the innocent would be protected by God. During the Renaissance, a slightly more logical concept of obtaining truth via questioning, such as that administered to a witness in a…