counterfeisance

English

Etymology

From French contrefaisance.

Noun

counterfeisance (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Deception, dissimulation.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For he in counterfeisance did excell, / And all the wyles of wemens wits knew passing well.

   • 1623 September 21, Joseph Hall, “Sermon X. The Best Bargain: A Sermon Preached to the Court at Theobald’s on Sunday, September 21, 1623”, in Philip Wynter, editor, The Works of the Right Reverend Joseph Hall, D.D., new revised and corrected edition, volume V, Oxford: At the University Press, published 1863, →OCLC, page 179:

     [I]t is but bare, simple, plain, honest, homely truth, without welt, without guard. It will abide none but native colours. It scorneth to woo favour with farding and licking and counterfeisance. It hates either bought or borrowed beauty; and therefore, like some native face among the painted, looks coarse and rusty.