pretended something was real or true when it wasn't, or made a false copy of something.
From 'fake,' which entered English in the 1600s from unknown origins, possibly from German 'fegen' (to sweep) or Yiddish. The meaning has consistently related to deception.
Before photography and AI, people faked things with paint and props, but now deepfakes and Photoshop make it nearly impossible to trust images—the technology has caught up with human deception!
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