It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 22nd.
Today's word is belay, spelled B-E-L-I-E.
Belay is a verb.
To belay something is to give a false idea or impression of it.
Belay can also mean to show something to be false or wrong.
Here's the word used in a sentence from the Sacramento Bee.
But his humble presence belies the adventurous life that brought him through World War II and multiple attempts at sailing around the world.
What is a lie?
asks Lord Byron in Don Juan.
He then answers himself, tis but the truth in masquerade.
The history of the word belie illustrates a certain connection between lying and masquerading as something other than one is.
In Old English, belie meant to deceive by lying, but in time it came to mean to tell lies about,
taking on a sense similar to that of the modern word slander.
Eventually, its meaning softened,
shifting from an act of outright lying to one of mere misrepresentation.
By the 1700s, the word was being used in the sense to disguise or conceal.
Nowadays,
belay is typically applied when someone or something gives an impression that is in disagreement with the facts,
rather than in contexts where there is an intentional untruth.
A happy face put on to set others at ease, for example, may belay an internal disgruntlement.