bold face liar

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 09:35 AM 8/28/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>
>#this array *could* result from there being two separate contributions
>#to BOLD FACE: the general past-participle omission of MASH POTATO and
>#its ilk, plus BOLD FACE LIAR now being treated by some speakers as a
>#separate idiom ('someone lying with a bold face'), not involving a
>#past participle.
>
>Add to that, influence from "bold face type", which more people are
>probably familiar with now because of word processing.
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel

I have a similar problem when I teach Brown and Levinson's politeness
hierarchy, with its "bald on record" level.  They frequently type or say
"bold on record," which of course makes some sense in that context.  But
they clearly don't recognize the link with idioms of "bald-facedness."