phony

Definition

Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.

Etymology

Of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of fawny (“gilt brass ring used by swindlers”) (1781), from Irish fáinne (“ring”).

Example Sentences

• "A good jeweler should be able to tell a real stone from a phony one."
• "[…] one wonders whether the function of statistical techniques in the social sciences is not primarily to provide a machinery for producing phoney corroborations and thereby a semblance of ‘scientific progress’ where, in fact, there is nothing but an increase in pseudo-intellectual garbage."