also: けっさ
falsehood; fabrication; dissimulation
Rare literary noun for deliberate deception, false statements, or feigning. Not used in everyday speech; modern equivalents include 嘘, 偽り, or ごまかし.
In old texts, deceiving people through falsehood is admonished.
Rare kanji spelling; the word is uncommon and mostly literary.
Alternate reading けっさ; also rare.
The kanji 譎 means 'deceive' or 'lie', and 詐 means 'falsehood' or 'fraud'. The word is a Sino-Japanese compound (kango) with two possible readings, きっさ and けっさ, both rare. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it appears in classical Chinese-influenced texts.