blue lie
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.66 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A lie told by a police officer in order to get someone to comply with his or her wishes, thereby avoiding the use of force.
noun
A lie told to protect the reputation of one's group or organization.
Example Sentences
- "Blue lies are different from police placebos in that they are not told to help or comfort the person lied to but, rather, to exert control"
- "Hence the individuals most likely to become the dupes of blue lies are those who do not respond submissively to the power and authority of the police or to non-deceptive attempts at persuasion."
- "Blue lies are those used to control the person or to make the job easier in situations where force could be used. For example, to make an arrest eaiser, an officer will lie about where the suspect is being taken, or to get someone out on the street to be arrested, the officer will say that she only wants to talk."
- "(see title)"
- "About Manete's evidence, that Francis had asked him why he did not join the people, why he did not fight, Francis said, "No, he is telling a blue lie.""
- "Fu et al. (2013) found that Chinese participants judged blue lies less negatively than did their American counterparts, and that this difference increased with age."
Etymology
Coined by Carl Klockars referring to the blue color of American police uniforms. Klockars used the term for a lie told in order to achieve compliance without resorting to force. However, the term later became generalized to all lies told by police, and then especially to the lies told by police officers to conceal questionable behavior on the part of police force. By extension, the term came to mean any lie told to protect the reputation of one's group or organization, even when not told by a police officer.