Word of the Day

: July 11, 2010

perfidious

adjective per-FID-ee-us

What It Means

: of, relating to, or characterized by faithlessness or disloyalty : treacherous

perfidious in Context

"Businessmen are constantly scheming to get the government to beat up on their competitors, and the best excuse of all is that the competitor is a perfidious foreigner." (The Wall Street Journal, October 27, 1992)

Did You Know?

We wouldn't lie to you about the history of "perfidious" -- even though the word itself suggests deceitfulness. The modern English meaning of "perfidious" remains faithful to that of its Latin ancestor, "perfidus," which means "faithless." English speakers have used "perfidious" to mean "treacherous" since at least 1572. One of the earliest known uses of the term can be found in Act V, scene iii of Shakespeare’s All's Well That Ends Well: the "perfidious slave" Parolles is thought to be an unreliable witness; he’ll say whatever suits his purpose, whether true or not. In contemporary usage, "perfidious" not only implies treacherousness, but an inability to be reliable or honorable.