liar

   Used on its own, or qualified by other words in vocative use. On its own it is used insultingly on two occasions in The Country Girls, by Edna O’Brien. ‘You bloody liar’ occurs in Doctor at Sea, by Richard Gordon, and this is expanded to ‘you bloody little liar’ in AngloSaxon Attitudes, by Angus Wilson. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier, has ‘you damned halfwitted liar’. A milder form of this particular accusation, often used by children, is ‘you fibber’. When children do resort to ‘you liar’ they are likely to accompany the vocative with a chant. One such is quoted, rather surprisingly, in Last Tango in Paris, by Robert Alley: ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire!’