feign

/ˈfān/

Middle English feynen, feignen "to make, fabricate, make a likeness of, dissemble, pretend to be," borrowed from Anglo-French feign-, stem of feindre, going back to Latin fingere "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of, pretend to be," going back to Indo-European *d{sup}h{/sup}i-n-ǵ{sup}h{/sup}- (whence also Old Irish con-utuinc "builds, constructs," Armenian dizanem "[I] heap up"), present tense derivative of *d{sup}h{/sup}ei̯ǵ{sup}h{/sup}- "knead, shape," whence Gothic digan "to knead, form from clay," Old Church Slavic ziždǫ, zĭdati "to build," Lithuanian žiedžiù, žiẽsti "to form, shape (from clay)" (Balto-Slavic with metathesis of stop consonants), Armenian edēz "(s/he) heaped up," Tocharian B tsik- "fashion, shape, build," Sanskrit pari … déhat "will cover over, smear over"

verb

  1. to give a false appearance of : induce as a false impression

  2. to assert as if true : pretend

  3. invent, imagine

feign death

He feigned that he was not feeling well so that he could leave the party early.

assume affect pretend simulate feign counterfeit sham mean to put on a false or deceptive appearance. assume often implies a justifiable motive rather than an intent to deceive. affect implies making a false show of possessing, using, or feeling.