Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
FEIGN
feign, sham, pretend, affect, dissemble
(verb) make believe with the intent to deceive; “He feigned that he was ill”; “He shammed a headache”
simulate, assume, sham, feign
(verb) make a pretence of; “She assumed indifference, even though she was seething with anger”; “he feigned sleep”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
feign (third-person singular simple present feigns, present participle feigning, simple past and past participle feigned)
To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
To imagine; to invent; to pretend.
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent.
To hide or conceal.
Synonyms
• (represent by a false appearance): front, put on airs
• See deceive
Source: Wiktionary
Feign, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Feigned; p. pr. & vb. n. Feigning.] Etym: [OE. feinen, F. feindre (p. pr. feignant), fr. L. fingere; akin to L. figura figure,and E. dough. See Dough, and cf. Figure, Faint, Effigy, Fiction.]
1. To give a mental existence to, as to something not real or actual; to imagine; to invent; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true. There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. Neh. vi. 8. The poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods. Shak.
2. To represent by a false appearance of; to pretend; to counterfeit; as, to feign a sickness. Shak.
3. To dissemble; to conceal. [Obs.] Spenser.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
14 April 2025
FOCUS
(noun) maximum clarity or distinctness of an image rendered by an optical system; “in focus”; “out of focus”
Coffee Trivia
