Is the phrase "bold faced liar" or "bald faced liar"?

Question

People seem to mostly say bald faced liar, but that doesn't make as much sense as bold faced liar. Bold faced liar would be the word "liar" in bold face type, which is sensible. Bald faced liar would be a person with no facial hair who is lying, which doesn't make sense to me.

Answer 1

The original term seems to have been bald-faced (bare-faced) and refers to a face without whiskers. Beards were commonly worn by businessmen in the 18th and 19th century as an attempt to mask facial expressions when making business deals. Thus a bald-faced liar was a very good liar indeed, and was able to lie without the guilt showing on his face.



It's just the last 5 yrs or so that "bold" has come into usage. It refers to typeface. It is used metaphorically in speech. In the same way that a typesetter uses bold face type to highlight specific text and set it apart, a bold face lie stands out in such a way as to not be mistaken for the truth.

Answer 2

The correct expression is 'bare faced liar'

Answer 3

I believe the proper term is "Bold-faced liar". Hope this helps!

Answer 4

That's interesting, because in my part of the UK we all say barefaced liar, and that is what shows up on Google's idiom list

Answer 5

I've always understood that the saying was barefaced liar.

Answer 6

It's bold.

Answer 7

Bald-faced liar is correct. Think of it as the lie is so obvious that it is exposed (bald).

Answer 8

either work, but i am telling the truth