I would venture to say that there are aren’t many people out there who love words, language, and etymology more than I do. If a turn of phrase or a strange way of saying something catches my attention, I’m the first one to grab my phone and try to track down where it came from.
Cause English is weeeeeeird.Aside: I just spent several weeks captivated by the Unabomber show on Discovery for this reason. I had no idea he was caught because he used an unusual phrasing – eat your cake and have it, too – as opposed to the more common (but, it turns out, incorrect), have your cake and eat it, too. That’s nuts!
Seriously, it was good, if you’re looking for something to binge.
But that turn of phrase is for a different day (maybe). Today, we’re talking about where the phrase ‘liar liar pants on fire’ comes from, and I promise it’s just as interesting.
Mostly because the answer is that we really have no idea.
Okay. So, here’s the truth: even though the internet exists, and things are fairly easy to track down, we all know from our friends on Facebook that the majority of people don’t take the time to do their research. Which is why there are so many fake theories out there about where ‘liar liar pants on fire’ came from.
So let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
According to linguist Barry Popik, the sing-song slang ‘liar, liar’ has been around for quite some time – it originated as early as the 1400s, when people favored the phrase “liar, liar, lick-dish!” That came from the idea that the fibber will “lie as fast as a dog will lick a dish.” Which of course, is really fast – and has nothing to do with pants or fire.
dug further into the complete phrase and found a small clue that inched us closer to an answer: a collection of English…
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