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W hen’s the last time you told a shameless fib1？ Did you get caught？ Do you know why？ Maybe you couldn’t stop your eyes from darting around， or your hands from fidgeting.2 Maybe your nose started growing rapidly， like Pinocchio’s3. Or did your would-be targets point out a smoky smell， coming from the seat of your jeans？ It’s an association as strong as a steel rivet： from schoolyard taunts to political cartoons to fact-checking websites， a true liar’s pants are always on fire.4
As popular as the saying has become， though—and as satisfying as it is to chant or say—“liar， liar， pants on fire！” is not the most intuitive5 of phrases. Although people’s pants do sometimes catch on fire， this correlates more with carrying around accidentally explosive materials than it does with truthfulness.6 Meanwhile， the vast majority of liars make it through life unscathed7 by this particular fashion catastrophe. The mystery of the phrase’s origins is compounded by the fact that several of its more popularly reported etymologies are，8 in fact， lies.
“‘Liar， liar’—without the ‘pants on fire’—has been around a long time，” says Barry Popik， a linguist who specializes in slang and proverbs. As early as the 1400s， people would call each other out using the phrase “liar， liar， lick-dish！，”the idea being—according to one proverb dictionary—that the accused will “lie as fast as a dog will lick a dish.” Popik dug into the complete phrase in June of 2010 for his etymology blog， The Big Apple， and found a collection of English naval ballads from 1840， featuring a short poem that seems to come from this lineage， and that links two of the phrase’s main aspects， lying and fire： “Liar， liar， lick spit / turn about the candlestick，” it reads.9 “What’s good for liar？ Brimstone10 and fire.”
All of these， though， are missing that crucial pants element. The earliest full example Popik found was from the 1930s—specifically， the August 13， 1933， issue of the Sunday WorldHerald. In an article titled “Fat Pat to Rassle Savage Because the Public Wants It，” a reporter wrote that fans had been clamoring to see “Fat” Pat McGill rassle Steve Savage， to the extent that the local wrestling promoter has been “deluged by letters， swamped by phone calls， and buried under an avalanche of telegrams.”11 This news is followed by a cheekily defensive parenthetical：12 “It is so， you liar， liar， pants on fire； there were several people who called up.”
The phrase is deployed13 casually， which suggests that it may already have been fairly well-known at that point. Popik also found a number of uses from the late 1930s and 1940s， most of them embedded in the classic playground poem， which also brings in some Pinocchio imagery：14 “Liar， liar / pants on fire / nose as long as a telephone wire！” But whatever genius child first came up with this taunt has been lost to the annals of15 time.“Unfortunately， we didn’t have Twitter back then，” Popik says.“If we had Twitter， I’d be able to pin this down16 to the exact day and exact hour.” Amateur etymologists and pranksters have stepped in to fill the gap.17 A commenter on one popular etymology blog cited a story he read in a history book， about an 18th-century British merchant who was famously mendacious， and who once lit his pants on fire while loading his gun and smoking a cigar at the same time.18 （“It’s highly unlikely the saying is from the 1700s，” says Popik， who had never heard this story.） One Yahoo Answers member， known simply as Bryce， cited a Biblical verse featuring the line “Thy trousers，19 they burn with a fire as though from Heaven.” （This is， of course， not a real Biblical verse—Bryce made it up.）
And then there is the poem “The Liar，” commonly attributed to William Blake，20 which begins in a familiar way：
“Deceiver， dissembler
Your trousers are alight
From what pole or gallows
Shall they dangle in the night？”21
Further verses， which are worth reading， bring in an ill-fated horse， a “red devil of mendacity” who “grips your soul with such tenacity，”and another instant-classic couplet： “from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung？”22 Anyone who has read Blake’s bestknown poem， “The Tyger，” will recognize the poem’s meter， rhyme scheme，23 and question-based structure.
But the poem itself is an imposter： it was written not by Blake in 1810， but by a gifted parodist sometime around 2010.24 It comes courtesy of the Uncyclopedia， a now-defunct website that billed itself as a “content-free encyclopedia，”25 and it has fooled a lot of people seeking high-minded ways to talk about lying， from investment bankers to ministers to social scientists. They’ve fallen for a classic trap： “Famous people—such as Mark Twain， Abraham Lincoln， Thomas Jefferson， and Winston Churchill—get famous quotes attributed to them，”26 Popik says. “Unfortunately， the bogus27 quotes are still around in the internet age… people are too lazy to search for a few seconds.”
Despite its lack of fascinating backstory or literary pedigree28， though， “Liar， liar， pants on fire” has spent decades doing just fine on its own. “It’s a nice rhyme，” says Popik， when asked about its longevity29. Plus， he adds， it’s perpetually relevant： “There are a lot of liars.” Make sure you’re not one of them： before you spread a linguistic origin story， take a second to do a little research. Otherwise， your own trousers might end up aflame.
1. fib： 謊言，（无关紧要的）小谎。
2. dart： 看，瞥；fidget： 坐立不安，烦躁。 3. Pinocchio： 匹诺曹，童话人物，说谎时鼻子会变长。
4. 这种关联就像钢铆钉一样强硬：从校园嘲讽到政治漫画再到测伪网站，一个真正的骗子总是会裤子着火。rivet： 铆钉；taunt： 嘲笑（或讽刺、奚落等）的言辞。
5. intuitive： 易懂的。
6. 尽管人们的裤子有时确实会着火，但这也往往是因为恰巧携带了易爆物品而非与说谎有关。correlate： 相互关联。
7. unscathed： 未受伤害的。
8. compound： 使加重，使恶化；etymology：词源学。
9. naval： 海军的；ballad： 民谣，民歌；lineage： // 世系，宗系。
10. brimstone： 硫磺。
11. 在一篇题为“在公众呼吁下，胖帕特将与萨维奇摔跤”的文章中，一位记者写道，粉丝们一直在呼吁看到“胖”帕特·麦吉尔与史蒂夫·萨维奇摔跤，以至于当地的摔跤活动举办机构“已经被信件和电话淹没，被埋在了雪崩般的电报之下”。rassle：〈口，方〉摔跤；clamor： 大声疾呼，强烈要求；deluge： 压倒，使应接不暇；swamp： 使陷入（大量工作），使面临（大量问题等）；avalanche： 雪崩。
12. cheekily： 调皮的，淘气的；parenthetical： // 插入语，附带说明。
13. deploy： 使用。
14. embed： 深深印入；imagery： 意象，形象化描述。
15. the annals of sth.： 某事物的历史。
16. pin down： 记录下来。
17. amateur： 业余爱好者；prankster： 开玩笑的人，惡作剧的人。
18. mendacious： 虚假的，撒谎的；load a gun： 装子弹。
19. verse：（《圣经》中标有数码的）节；thy：（古英语）你的。
20. attribute to： 认为……属于；William Blake： 威廉·布莱克（1757—1827），英国第一位重要的浪漫主义诗人、版画家，浪漫主义文学代表人物之一。
21. dissembler： 伪君子；gallow： 托架；dangle： 悬垂，悬挂。
22. mendacity： 谎言；tenacity： 顽强，执著；couplet：（同长度的）两行诗，对句；foul： 肮脏的；whopper： 大谎言；spring： 涌现。from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung此句大意为：这些弥天大谎来自哪个肮脏的欺骗之坑呢？
23. tyger： 即tiger；meter：（诗的）格律，韵律；rhyme scheme： 押韵格式。
24. imposter： 冒充他人的人，骗子；parodist： 模仿者。
25. courtesy of： 经由……提供；Uncyclopedia： 伪基百科，一个功能、操作方式与维基百科大致相似，但主要以恶搞为目的的网站；defunct： 不再存在的，失效的；bill sb./sth. as： 把某人/某物宣传（或描述）成。
26. 他们掉进了一个典型的陷阱：“名人——如马克·吐温、亚伯拉罕·林肯、托马斯·杰斐逊以及温斯顿·丘吉尔——都会被冠以（不属于他们的）‘名言’。”fall for： 受……的欺骗，信以为真。
27. bogus： 伪造的。
28. pedigree： 起源，由来。
29. longevity： 寿命。
As popular as the saying has become， though—and as satisfying as it is to chant or say—“liar， liar， pants on fire！” is not the most intuitive5 of phrases. Although people’s pants do sometimes catch on fire， this correlates more with carrying around accidentally explosive materials than it does with truthfulness.6 Meanwhile， the vast majority of liars make it through life unscathed7 by this particular fashion catastrophe. The mystery of the phrase’s origins is compounded by the fact that several of its more popularly reported etymologies are，8 in fact， lies.
“‘Liar， liar’—without the ‘pants on fire’—has been around a long time，” says Barry Popik， a linguist who specializes in slang and proverbs. As early as the 1400s， people would call each other out using the phrase “liar， liar， lick-dish！，”the idea being—according to one proverb dictionary—that the accused will “lie as fast as a dog will lick a dish.” Popik dug into the complete phrase in June of 2010 for his etymology blog， The Big Apple， and found a collection of English naval ballads from 1840， featuring a short poem that seems to come from this lineage， and that links two of the phrase’s main aspects， lying and fire： “Liar， liar， lick spit / turn about the candlestick，” it reads.9 “What’s good for liar？ Brimstone10 and fire.”
All of these， though， are missing that crucial pants element. The earliest full example Popik found was from the 1930s—specifically， the August 13， 1933， issue of the Sunday WorldHerald. In an article titled “Fat Pat to Rassle Savage Because the Public Wants It，” a reporter wrote that fans had been clamoring to see “Fat” Pat McGill rassle Steve Savage， to the extent that the local wrestling promoter has been “deluged by letters， swamped by phone calls， and buried under an avalanche of telegrams.”11 This news is followed by a cheekily defensive parenthetical：12 “It is so， you liar， liar， pants on fire； there were several people who called up.”
The phrase is deployed13 casually， which suggests that it may already have been fairly well-known at that point. Popik also found a number of uses from the late 1930s and 1940s， most of them embedded in the classic playground poem， which also brings in some Pinocchio imagery：14 “Liar， liar / pants on fire / nose as long as a telephone wire！” But whatever genius child first came up with this taunt has been lost to the annals of15 time.“Unfortunately， we didn’t have Twitter back then，” Popik says.“If we had Twitter， I’d be able to pin this down16 to the exact day and exact hour.” Amateur etymologists and pranksters have stepped in to fill the gap.17 A commenter on one popular etymology blog cited a story he read in a history book， about an 18th-century British merchant who was famously mendacious， and who once lit his pants on fire while loading his gun and smoking a cigar at the same time.18 （“It’s highly unlikely the saying is from the 1700s，” says Popik， who had never heard this story.） One Yahoo Answers member， known simply as Bryce， cited a Biblical verse featuring the line “Thy trousers，19 they burn with a fire as though from Heaven.” （This is， of course， not a real Biblical verse—Bryce made it up.）
And then there is the poem “The Liar，” commonly attributed to William Blake，20 which begins in a familiar way：
“Deceiver， dissembler
Your trousers are alight
From what pole or gallows
Shall they dangle in the night？”21
Further verses， which are worth reading， bring in an ill-fated horse， a “red devil of mendacity” who “grips your soul with such tenacity，”and another instant-classic couplet： “from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung？”22 Anyone who has read Blake’s bestknown poem， “The Tyger，” will recognize the poem’s meter， rhyme scheme，23 and question-based structure.
But the poem itself is an imposter： it was written not by Blake in 1810， but by a gifted parodist sometime around 2010.24 It comes courtesy of the Uncyclopedia， a now-defunct website that billed itself as a “content-free encyclopedia，”25 and it has fooled a lot of people seeking high-minded ways to talk about lying， from investment bankers to ministers to social scientists. They’ve fallen for a classic trap： “Famous people—such as Mark Twain， Abraham Lincoln， Thomas Jefferson， and Winston Churchill—get famous quotes attributed to them，”26 Popik says. “Unfortunately， the bogus27 quotes are still around in the internet age… people are too lazy to search for a few seconds.”
Despite its lack of fascinating backstory or literary pedigree28， though， “Liar， liar， pants on fire” has spent decades doing just fine on its own. “It’s a nice rhyme，” says Popik， when asked about its longevity29. Plus， he adds， it’s perpetually relevant： “There are a lot of liars.” Make sure you’re not one of them： before you spread a linguistic origin story， take a second to do a little research. Otherwise， your own trousers might end up aflame.
1. fib： 謊言，（无关紧要的）小谎。
2. dart： 看，瞥；fidget： 坐立不安，烦躁。 3. Pinocchio： 匹诺曹，童话人物，说谎时鼻子会变长。
4. 这种关联就像钢铆钉一样强硬：从校园嘲讽到政治漫画再到测伪网站，一个真正的骗子总是会裤子着火。rivet： 铆钉；taunt： 嘲笑（或讽刺、奚落等）的言辞。
5. intuitive： 易懂的。
6. 尽管人们的裤子有时确实会着火，但这也往往是因为恰巧携带了易爆物品而非与说谎有关。correlate： 相互关联。
7. unscathed： 未受伤害的。
8. compound： 使加重，使恶化；etymology：词源学。
9. naval： 海军的；ballad： 民谣，民歌；lineage： // 世系，宗系。
10. brimstone： 硫磺。
11. 在一篇题为“在公众呼吁下，胖帕特将与萨维奇摔跤”的文章中，一位记者写道，粉丝们一直在呼吁看到“胖”帕特·麦吉尔与史蒂夫·萨维奇摔跤，以至于当地的摔跤活动举办机构“已经被信件和电话淹没，被埋在了雪崩般的电报之下”。rassle：〈口，方〉摔跤；clamor： 大声疾呼，强烈要求；deluge： 压倒，使应接不暇；swamp： 使陷入（大量工作），使面临（大量问题等）；avalanche： 雪崩。
12. cheekily： 调皮的，淘气的；parenthetical： // 插入语，附带说明。
13. deploy： 使用。
14. embed： 深深印入；imagery： 意象，形象化描述。
15. the annals of sth.： 某事物的历史。
16. pin down： 记录下来。
17. amateur： 业余爱好者；prankster： 开玩笑的人，惡作剧的人。
18. mendacious： 虚假的，撒谎的；load a gun： 装子弹。
19. verse：（《圣经》中标有数码的）节；thy：（古英语）你的。
20. attribute to： 认为……属于；William Blake： 威廉·布莱克（1757—1827），英国第一位重要的浪漫主义诗人、版画家，浪漫主义文学代表人物之一。
21. dissembler： 伪君子；gallow： 托架；dangle： 悬垂，悬挂。
22. mendacity： 谎言；tenacity： 顽强，执著；couplet：（同长度的）两行诗，对句；foul： 肮脏的；whopper： 大谎言；spring： 涌现。from what pit of foul deceit / are all these whoppers sprung此句大意为：这些弥天大谎来自哪个肮脏的欺骗之坑呢？
23. tyger： 即tiger；meter：（诗的）格律，韵律；rhyme scheme： 押韵格式。
24. imposter： 冒充他人的人，骗子；parodist： 模仿者。
25. courtesy of： 经由……提供；Uncyclopedia： 伪基百科，一个功能、操作方式与维基百科大致相似，但主要以恶搞为目的的网站；defunct： 不再存在的，失效的；bill sb./sth. as： 把某人/某物宣传（或描述）成。
26. 他们掉进了一个典型的陷阱：“名人——如马克·吐温、亚伯拉罕·林肯、托马斯·杰斐逊以及温斯顿·丘吉尔——都会被冠以（不属于他们的）‘名言’。”fall for： 受……的欺骗，信以为真。
27. bogus： 伪造的。
28. pedigree： 起源，由来。
29. longevity： 寿命。