The act of deliberately lying or misleading someone to make them believe something false.
From Old French 'deceit,' derived from Latin 'deceptus,' past participle of 'decipere,' meaning 'to deceive' (from 'de-' meaning away and 'capere' meaning to take). The word entered English in the 1200s.
Deceit is interesting because it requires not just lying but INTENT—you have to deliberately mislead someone. This is why accidentally giving false information isn't technically deceit, which matters in law. The word captures something humans have wrestled with morally for thousands of years.
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