The verb ψευδω (pseudo) means to lie. The English "pseudo" mostly signifies surrogacy or a playful pretending, but is much milder than the original Greek idea of willful and malignant misrepresentation and deception with intent and purpose.

In the Bible only the earlier and more common form ψευδομαι (pseudomai) is used, but since the essence of the concept of truth is very hard to define (as famously demonstrated by Pontius Pilate: John 18:38), the essence of lying is equally obscure. Still, even little children seem to naturally understand the difference between lying and telling the truth.

The apostle Paul frequently submits that he is not lying (Romans 9:1, 2 Corinthians 11:31, Galatians 1:20). The almighty God is incapable of lying (Hebrews 6:18) but the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44). Lying is generally unbeneficial (Acts 5:3, Colossians 3:9, James 3:14) but being the recipient of it for Jesus' sake demonstrates being blessed (Matthew 5:11).

It's unclear where our verb comes from, and it may not even be Indo-European, which implies the possibility that it originated in the Semitic language basin and was incorporated into Greek along with the alphabet (see our article on the many Hebrew roots of Greek). That brings to mind verbs like פצה (patsa), to open (one's mouth) in order to bite, swallow, boast or sneer, or פצע (petsa'), to wound or bruise (Exodus 21:25). Deuteronomy 23:1 reads: "Not shall enter פצוע דכא (petsua' dakka')", which means "one wounded by crushing", and describes someone whose been emasculated or de-manned by applying ruinous pressure to his scrotum (evidently a method of castration).

The Hebrew word for male is זכר (zakar), which stems from the verb זכר (zakar), which means to remember. This implies that (in the terms of the terribly unwoke old world) masculinity equals the act of remembering, specifically some agreement or covenant, and hence fidelity, trustworthiness and thus predictability and ultimately freedom (see our article on ελευθερια, eleutheria, or freedom-by-law). Contrarily (and still terribly unwoke), femininity or נקבה (nekeva) derives from the verb נקב (naqab) to have a hole or be hollow (rather than filled with solid fidelity). And yes, this means that women are by nature unfaithful (2 Corinthians 11:3, see Matthew 11:19 and 1 Timothy 2:15), and that their fidelity can solely be to their own legal husbands, who hence is charged with keeping an eye on her and enforcing her fidelity (and see our article on Maranatha for a lengthy look at this).

Masculinity is the only source of femininity, because God is male and from him comes everything. This is also why Eve emerged from Adam's rib: she was contained within him when he was created. Men have XY chromosomes, of which the X-one guarantees the presence of girls in the world. But women have no masculinity in them, unless a man put it in there. Only a woman's legal husband can fill the woman's inner void with masculine offspring (Luke 2:19), because they are not equipped (by society) to be faithful to any wider covenant, and hence are reduced to gossiping untruthfully among themselves (1 Timothy 5:13).

All this means that a female is not physically defined from having two X-chromosomes or a womb or a closet full of cocktail dresses. Instead, a female is defined as someone who has a human master (verb חלל, halal, both means to pierce and to profane or enslave). A male is someone who has no human master, and is thus sovereign (see our article on the word Christ). Sovereignty is the result of several qualities and characteristics, including being financially free and having the wisdom and skill to stay free (like the five daughters of Zelophehad, who became land-owners, and thus land-lords to the law, which was a masculine quality). Sovereignty is also guaranteed by fellow sovereigns, which is why we don't de-masculate (i.e. dominate) our fellow sovereigns but uphold their masculinity. And even if one is born a subordinate (as a slave, a woman, or a child), the presence of Jesus Christ in the world allows everybody to become a sovereign (hence also the enigmatic saying 114 of the Gospel of Thomas, in which Jesus offers to make the Magdalene male).

And all this, we say with urgent emphasis, has nothing to do with how we moderns define, or attempt to define, genders and sexual orientations. These things are all about Bronze Age property laws and social relativity, and have nothing to do with 21st century property laws and social relativity. They two don't compare.

Our verb ψευδομαι (pseudomai) is used 12 times, see full concordance, and comes with the following derivatives:

The verb φιθυριζω (phithurizo) means to whisper, and whispering was done with words that one didn't dare say out loud: words that slandered or were designed to charm, manipulate or even hypnotize one's audience into a state of sleepy inattentiveness with sweet whispers (and see our article on the χασμα, chasma, yawn).

In the Septuagint, our verb occurs in Psalm 41:7: "All who hate me whisper together against me", where it translates the Hebrew verb לחש (lachash), to whisper or charm, specifically to snake-whisper, as in Ecclesiastes 10:11: "If the serpent bites before being whispered, there is no profit for the master-of-the-tongue" (i.e. בעל, ba'al, master of, הלשון, halashon, the tongue).

It's not clear where our verb comes from but it clearly shares its form and nature, and hence likely its origin, with the verb ψευδω (pseudo), to lie or to be not-dependable, which we discuss above. Our verb φιθυριζω (phithurizo), to whisper, is not used in the New Testament, but from it derive: