Other forms: fallacies
A fallacy is a piece of reasoning that looks good and is not. A logical fallacy, the sunk cost fallacy, commit a fallacy.
The named ones are worth knowing because they are so easy to fall into: the sunk cost fallacy is throwing good money after bad, and the gambler's fallacy is believing a coin is due to come up heads. Spotting one is not the same as showing the conclusion is false.
1nounfallacyA piece of reasoning that looks good and is not.
“It's a fallacy to think that expensive wine always tastes better.”
fallacy is an error.
The Latin is to deceive, and the same root is under false. A fallacy is false while looking sound, which is what makes it dangerous.
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Latin fallacia means deceit, from fallax, deceptive, from fallere, to deceive. Fail and false are relatives.
Latin
fallācia — deception, deceit
Old French
fallace
Middle English
fallaci
English, today
fallacy
Built from
From Middle English fallaci, fallace, fallas, from Old French fallace (whence -acy), from Latin fallācia (“deception, deceit”), from fallāx (“deceptive, deceitful”), from fallere (“to deceive”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA