Fake, fraudulent, or not genuine; something that is dishonest or pretending to be something it's not.
Possibly from 'fawney,' an old slang term for a worthless ring, though the origin is debated. It entered American slang in the early 1900s and became common partly through J.D. Salinger's novel 'The Catcher in the Rye.'
Salinger's main character in 'Catcher in the Rye' uses 'phoney' constantly to criticize fake people and superficiality, which made the word so famous that many people think it's a literary invention!
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