forgery

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1574; from forge +‎ -ery,[1] from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricārī (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”).

(fake): Compare typologically Russian кова́рный (kovárnyj), кова́рство (kovárstvo), ко́зни (kózni) (akin to кова́ть (kovátʹ), ку́зница (kúznica)).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈfɔːɹ.d͡ʒəɹ.ɪ/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

forgery (countable and uncountable, plural forgeries)

  1. The act of forging metal into shape.
    the forgery of horseshoes
  2. The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.
    the forgery of a bond
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
  3. That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised or counterfeited.
    Synonyms: counterfeit, fake
  4. (archaic) An invention, creation.

Usage notes

Derived terms

Translations

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References

  1. ^ “forgery, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.