English → Latin
“falsify” in Latin
corrumpōto pervert, corrupt, deprave or infect; to gain to oneself by gifts, etc.; bribe; to spoil or rotvitiōto vitiate, make faulty, spoil, taint, corrupt, damage; to violate sexually; to falsify, corrupt (tamper with)adulterōto commit adultery (with); to falsify, counterfeit, adulterate; to pollute, corrupt, defileinterpolōto give a new form, shape, or appearance; to polish, furbish, dress up; to alter, falsify, insert texttrānscrībōto transfer in writing, copy off, transcribe; to alter, forge, falsify; to assign, convey, transferpecūniamoney; wealth; cash, ready money, liquid wealthmercēspay, wages, reward; revenue, income; chastisement, punishment, penalty
The English word falsify itself goes back to Latin fallō, through falsificō.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
falsify
corrumpere (to corrupt by an internal change of quality): vitiare (to make faulty; pecunias, merces): adulterare (to falsify by the admixture of what is not genuine; e.g., numos, merces): interpolare (to give anything a good appearance by dressing it up, as it were, by spurious additions; merces): transcribere (to falsify in copying). To falsify documents, tabulas corrumpere, vitiare (general terms); tabulas interpolare (by erasing letters, and introducing others neatly, so as to be likely to avoid detection); tabulas interlinere (to erase [PROP. in wax] words from between other words; or to erase words so completely as to conceal, if possible, the fact of any having originally stood there); (The words are found in this connection and order.) tabulas corrumpere atque interlinere; tabulas transcribere (to falsify it in transcription; write it wrong): to falsify a will; Vid: “to FORGE a will.”
To falsify one’s word, etc., fidem fallere, mutare, frustrari, non servare: fidem frangere, violare.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for falsify?
- The usual Latin words for “falsify” are corrumpō, vitiō, adulterō; also interpolō, trānscrībō, pecūnia. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.