

Pathological liars often do not live in reality. At the same time, pathological liars may lie to gain attention and to feel important. Pathological liars often lie as an attempt to avoid getting into trouble-lying is a way of shifting the blame.

Unlike telling a few fibs here and there, or slightly exaggerating the truth once in a while, the pathological liar lies about literally every aspect of his or her life.”įor the pathological liar, the truth is often uncomfortable. “This person may not be completely rooted in reality, believing the lies they tell, often in an effort to remedy low self esteem. The website WikiHow has this to say about the pathological liar: Note: In etymologies, the * indicates that the Proto-Indo-European or prehistoric word has been reconstructed by historical linguists. Liar is based on the verb “to lie” (meaning “to speak falsely, tell an untruth”) which first appeared in English in the late twelfth century and stemmed from the Proto-Germanic “*leugan” which in turn came from the Proto-Indo-European root “*laugh-” meaning “to tell a lie.” It is based on the Old English “leogere” meaning “false witness” which comes from the Anglian “legan” and the West Saxon “leogan” meaning “be untruthful, lie.” Etymologists feel that the –ar ending was probably introduced in imitation of such forms as “scholar” for “scoler” and “pillar” for “piler.” Liar began being used in English in the early thirteenth century. While “pathology” originally referred to the study of physical diseases, in 1842 the meaning of the word was extended to include mental diseases as well.

#Define pathological lying plus#
Pathological is an adjective which is derived from the noun “pathology” (“science of diseases”) which came into English in the 1610s from the French “pathologie” which is based on the medical Latin “pathologia” meaning “study of disease.” The Latin “pathologia” comes from the Greek “pathos” meaning “suffering” plus “-logia” meaning “study.” In ancient Greek, “pathologia” meant “the study of passions” while “pathologike” meant “science of diseases.” One of the current definitions of pathological is “caused by or evidencing a mentally disturbed condition.” Pathological came into English in the 1680s with the meaning of “pertaining to disease.” With regard to etymology, pathological is based on pathologic which comes from the Greek “pathologikos.”
