FAUX

French law. A falsification or fraudulent alteration or suppression of a thing by words, by writings, or by acts without either.

Faux may be understood in three ways:
    In its most extended sense it is the alteration of truth, with or without intention; it is nearly synonymous with lying;
    In a less extended sense, it is the alteration of truth, accompanied with fraud, mutatio veritatis cum dolo facta, and lastly;
    In a narrow or legal sense of the word, when it is a question to know if the faux be a crime in those cases ascertained and punished by the law, it is the fraudulent alteration of the truth.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.