Quote:

>You lie like a dentist at a fair.

This expression is used by one of the characters in the English translation of "The Age of Reason" (1945) by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Eric Sutton (1962).

It gets zero Google-hits.

Maybe it's a literal translation of a French idiom. Any ideas as to why French dentists at fairs might embody the quiddity of dishonesty?



Hydra,I consulted a French online Dictionnaire on this, asking:
mentir comme un dentiste a la foire on which they gave:
To lie like a dentist with (!) the fair
(but anyway the dictionnaire accepted the question as a standing expression.)

Obviously is it poorly translated , but quite directly from the idiom and it sure has to do with the charlatans and demi- charlatans in the old days performing operations and teeth pulling at fairs as seen in 16 th and 17 th century paintings- Breughel and Jan Steen a.s.
The dishonesty was international. As was, is and will be.