phony

¹

or pho·ney

[ foh-nee ]

adjective

, pho·ni·er, pho·ni·est.

1. not real or genuine; fake; counterfeit:

   a phony diamond.

2. false or deceiving; not truthful; concocted:

   a phony explanation.

3. insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious:

   a phony sales representative.

noun

, plural pho·nies.

1. something that is phony; a counterfeit or fake.

   Synonyms: hoax, imitation, fraud

2. an insincere, pretentious, or deceitful person:

   He thought my friends were a bunch of phonies.

verb (used with object)

, pho·nied, pho·ny·ing.

1. to falsify; counterfeit; fabricate (often followed by up ):

   to phony up a document.

-phony

²

1. a combining form used in the formation of abstract nouns corresponding to nouns ending in -phone:

   telephony.

-phony

¹

combining form

1. indicating a specified type of sound

   euphony

   cacophony

phony

²

/ ˈfəʊnɪ /

adjective

1. a variant spelling (esp US) of phoney

Derived Forms

• -phonic, combining_form:in_adjective
• ˈphoniness, noun

Other Words From

• phoni·ly adverb
• phoni·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of phony¹

1895–1900; perhaps alteration and respelling of fawney (slang) finger ring (< Irish fsptáinne ), if taken to mean “false” in the phrase fawney rig a confidence game in which a brass ring is sold as a gold one

Origin of phony²

< Greek -phōnia; -phone, -y ³

Word History and Origins

Origin of phony¹

from Greek -phōnia, from phōnē sound

Example Sentences

So he retreats to this phony masculine idea of "strength," constructed through Hollywood magic.

From Salon

The way to get there, however, is not through transparently phony defenses of transparent cowardice.

From Salon

“You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there,” he said, “because it’s a lot of phony stuff in that whole world.”

From Salon

In the past few weeks, Trump has retreated to the safe spaces of far-right media, phony events with only hand-picked supporters in attendance, and rallies, coddled from any scary reminders that most Americans dislike him.

From Salon

“And I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.”

From Salon

Related Words

• bogus
• counterfeit
• forged
• sham
• spurious

More About Phony

Where does phony come from?

Phony is a word that means “fake” or “made up.” But there is nothing fake about this unusual origin story for the word. While the exact origins of phony are unknown, the word likely comes from an old con known as the fawney rig. Fawney is from an Irish word for “finger ring,” and rig is an old term for a “trick” or “swindle.”

As for how the trick worked, the swindler would “accidentally” drop a piece of cheap jewelry in front of their target. Then, they would pick it up while acting relieved that they hadn’t lost such a supposedly valuable ring. If the scheme was a success, they’d sell it to the target for much more than it was actually worth.

By the 20th century, the spelling of the word was eventually changed from fawney to phony and came to refer to anything fake or counterfeit.

The roots of these other words may get a rise—of laughter or surprise—out of you. Run on over to our roundup of them at “Weird Word Origins That Will Make Your Family Laugh.”

Did you know … ?

• As you might have guessed from its origin story, phony is unrelated to telephone or other words that use the combining forms -phone and -phony, which are more about sounds.
• Phony is used in the expression phony war, a term for a fake war or an apparent momentary peace during a war.
• If something is truly nonsensical, you might go the extra lexical mile and call it phony-baloney.