By+Cara+Giaimo

W hens the last time you told a shameless fib1？ Did you get caught？ Do you know why？ Maybe you couldnt stop your eyes from darting around， or your hands from fidgeting.2 Maybe your nose started growing rapidly， like Pinocchios3. Or did your would-be targets point out a smoky smell， coming from the seat of your jeans？ Its an association as strong as a steel rivet： from schoolyard taunts to political cartoons to fact-checking websites， a true liars pants are always on fire.4

As popular as the saying has become， though—and as satisfying as it is to chant or say—“l(fā)iar， liar， pants on fire！” is not the most intuitive5 of phrases. Although peoples pants do sometimes catch on fire， this correlates more with carrying around accidentally explosive materials than it does with truthfulness.6 Meanwhile， the vast majority of liars make it through life unscathed7 by this particular fashion catastrophe. The mystery of the phrases origins is compounded by the fact that several of its more popularly reported etymologies are，8 in fact， lies.

“‘Liar， liar—without the ‘pants on fire—has been around a long time，” says Barry Popik， a linguist who specializes in slang and proverbs. As early as the 1400s， people would call each other out using the phrase “l(fā)iar， liar， lick-dish！，”the idea being—according to one proverb dictionary—that the accused will “l(fā)ie as fast as a dog will lick a dish.” Popik dug into the complete phrase in June of 2010 for his etymology blog， The Big Apple， and found a collection of English naval ballads from 1840， featuring a short poem that seems to come from this lineage， and that links two of the phrases main aspects， lying and fire： “Liar， liar， lick spit / turn about the candlestick，” it reads.9 “Whats good for liar？ Brimstone10 and fire.”

All of these， though， are missing that crucial pants element. The earliest full example Popik found was from the 1930s—specifically， the August 13， 1933， issue of the Sunday WorldHerald. In an article titled “Fat Pat to Rassle Savage Because the Public Wants It，” a reporter wrote that fans had been clamoring to see “Fat” Pat McGill rassle Steve Savage， to the extent that the local wrestling promoter has been “deluged by letters， swamped by phone calls， and buried under an avalanche of telegrams.”11 This news is followed by a cheekily defensive parenthetical：12 “It is so， you liar， liar， pants on fire； there were several people who called up.”

The phrase is deployed13 casually， which suggests that it may already have been fairly well-known at that point. Popik also found a number of uses from the late 1930s and 1940s， most of them embedded in the classic playground poem， which also brings in some Pinocchio imagery：14 “Liar， liar / pants on fire / nose as long as a telephone wire！” But whatever genius child first came up with this taunt has been lost to the annals of15 time.“Unfortunately， we didnt have Twitter back then，” Popik says.“If we had Twitter， Id be able to pin this down16 to the exact day and exact hour.”endprint

Amateur etymologists and pranksters have stepped in to fill the gap.17 A commenter on one popular etymology blog cited a story he read in a history book， about an 18th-century British merchant who was famously mendacious， and who once lit his pants on fire while loading his gun and smoking a cigar at the same time.18 （“Its highly unlikely the saying is from the 1700s，” says Popik， who had never heard this story.） One Yahoo Answers member， known simply as Bryce， cited a Biblical verse featuring the line “Thy trousers，19 they burn with a fire as though from Heaven.” （This is， of course， not a real Biblical verse—Bryce made it up.）

And then there is the poem “The Liar，” commonly attributed to William Blake，20 which begins in a familiar way：

“Deceiver， dissembler

Your trousers are alight

From what pole or gallows

Shall they dangle in the night？”21

Further verses， which are worth reading， bring in an ill-fated horse， a “red devil of mendacity” who “grips your soul with such tenacity，”and another instant-classic couplet： “from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung？”22 Anyone who has read Blakes bestknown poem， “The Tyger，” will recognize the poems meter， rhyme scheme，23 and question-based structure.

But the poem itself is an imposter： it was written not by Blake in 1810， but by a gifted parodist sometime around 2010.24 It comes courtesy of the Uncyclopedia， a now-defunct website that billed itself as a “content-free encyclopedia，”25 and it has fooled a lot of people seeking high-minded ways to talk about lying， from investment bankers to ministers to social scientists. Theyve fallen for a classic trap： “Famous people—such as Mark Twain， Abraham Lincoln， Thomas Jefferson， and Winston Churchill—get famous quotes attributed to them，”26 Popik says. “Unfortunately， the bogus27 quotes are still around in the internet age… people are too lazy to search for a few seconds.”

Despite its lack of fascinating backstory or literary pedigree28， though， “Liar， liar， pants on fire” has spent decades doing just fine on its own. “Its a nice rhyme，” says Popik， when asked about its longevity29. Plus， he adds， its perpetually relevant： “There are a lot of liars.” Make sure youre not one of them： before you spread a linguistic origin story， take a second to do a little research. Otherwise， your own trousers might end up aflame.

1. fib： 謊言，（無關(guān)緊要的）小謊。

2. dart： 看，瞥；fidget： 坐立不安，煩躁。endprint

3. Pinocchio： 匹諾曹，童話人物，說謊時鼻子會變長。

4. 這種關(guān)聯(lián)就像鋼鉚釘一樣強硬：從校園嘲諷到政治漫畫再到測偽網(wǎng)站，一個真正的騙子總是會褲子著火。rivet： 鉚釘；taunt： 嘲笑（或諷刺、奚落等）的言辭。

5. intuitive： 易懂的。

6. 盡管人們的褲子有時確實會著火，但這也往往是因為恰巧攜帶了易爆物品而非與說謊有關(guān)。correlate： 相互關(guān)聯(lián)。

7. unscathed： 未受傷害的。

8. compound： 使加重，使惡化；etymology：詞源學(xué)。

9. naval： 海軍的；ballad： 民謠，民歌；lineage： // 世系，宗系。

10. brimstone： 硫磺。

11. 在一篇題為“在公眾呼吁下，胖帕特將與薩維奇摔跤”的文章中，一位記者寫道，粉絲們一直在呼吁看到“胖”帕特·麥吉爾與史蒂夫·薩維奇摔跤，以至于當?shù)氐乃踊顒优e辦機構(gòu)“已經(jīng)被信件和電話淹沒，被埋在了雪崩般的電報之下”。rassle：〈口，方〉摔跤；clamor： 大聲疾呼，強烈要求；deluge： 壓倒，使應(yīng)接不暇；swamp： 使陷入（大量工作），使面臨（大量問題等）；avalanche： 雪崩。

12. cheekily： 調(diào)皮的，淘氣的；parenthetical： // 插入語，附帶說明。

13. deploy： 使用。

14. embed： 深深印入；imagery： 意象，形象化描述。

15. the annals of sth.： 某事物的歷史。

16. pin down： 記錄下來。

17. amateur： 業(yè)余愛好者；prankster： 開玩笑的人，惡作劇的人。

18. mendacious： 虛假的，撒謊的；load a gun： 裝子彈。

19. verse：（《圣經(jīng)》中標有數(shù)碼的）節(jié)；thy：（古英語）你的。

20. attribute to： 認為……屬于；William Blake： 威廉·布萊克（1757—1827），英國第一位重要的浪漫主義詩人、版畫家，浪漫主義文學(xué)代表人物之一。

21. dissembler： 偽君子；gallow： 托架；dangle： 懸垂，懸掛。

22. mendacity： 謊言；tenacity： 頑強，執(zhí)著；couplet：（同長度的）兩行詩，對句；foul： 骯臟的；whopper： 大謊言；spring： 涌現(xiàn)。from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung此句大意為：這些彌天大謊來自哪個骯臟的欺騙之坑呢？

23. tyger： 即tiger；meter：（詩的）格律，韻律；rhyme scheme： 押韻格式。

24. imposter： 冒充他人的人，騙子；parodist： 模仿者。

25. courtesy of： 經(jīng)由……提供；Uncyclopedia： 偽基百科，一個功能、操作方式與維基百科大致相似，但主要以惡搞為目的的網(wǎng)站；defunct： 不再存在的，失效的；bill sb./sth. as： 把某人/某物宣傳（或描述）成。

26. 他們掉進了一個典型的陷阱：“名人——如馬克·吐溫、亞伯拉罕·林肯、托馬斯·杰斐遜以及溫斯頓·丘吉爾——都會被冠以（不屬于他們的）‘名言?！眆all for： 受……的欺騙，信以為真。

27. bogus： 偽造的。

28. pedigree： 起源，由來。

29. longevity： 壽命。endprint