Why is the package leaflet of medicines called "leaflet"? A lot has to do with the tendency of pharmaceutical companies to hide the possible side effects of medicines, as the Accademia della Crusca explains.
Crusca replies "The term liar, used to indicate the leaflet accompanying the drugs, is a semantically and morphologically transparent formation, based on the adjective liar con il suffisso del diminutivo –ino, suitable both in reference to the size of the object and to mitigate the appellation of with a vein of irony liar. In this process we witness the transition from the adjective liar, referable only to man as an entity capable of conceiving and saying lies, to a noun which instead indicates an inanimate object containing a text, to be precise an informative text. Some clues could make us hypothesize that the name was born from a nominal use of the adjective liar: in Tuscany, to be precise in the Sienese area, the elderly remember that the liar was the poster of the newspapers displayed outside the newsstands and from here, by reducing the size of the sheet, it was perhaps possible to come to name liar the medicine leaflet. There is another connection, this time documented, to the journalism field: in the book by G. Gelati, Speak Livorno (Ugo Bastogi Editore, 1992) is the voiceliar defined as follows: "During fascism the newspaper «Il Telegrafo» was called by the anti-fascists and was said to be the property of the Ciano family". However, we do not have any data that can confirm the link between these formations which, on the same basis as liar, may have had distinct paths.
Se queste restano soltanto ipotesi, non c’è dubbio invece che questo nome voglia puntare l’attenzione sulle prerogative di queste particolari “istruzioni per l’uso” che, soprattutto negli anni di boom della farmacologia, tendevano a sorvolare su difetti ed effetti indesiderati del farmaco per esaltarne i pregi e l’efficacia. Non erano quindi vere e proprie “bugie” quelle che vi si potevano leggere, ma nell’insieme il foglietto risultava un “bugiardino” che diceva piccole bugie o, meglio, ometteva informazioni importanti ma che potevano essere compromettenti per il prodotto. Negli ultimi anni, grazie a restrizioni legislative che hanno imposto regole più rigide per la compilazione dei foglietti illustrativi e anche grazie ad una maggiore attenzione dei consumatori nell’assumere farmaci, siamo forse arrivati ad ottenere che siano riportate sul liar all the important news about the drug. Currently the most widespread criticism is that these tools, aimed at consumers and therefore at non-specialists, remain incomprehensible even to a careful and scrupulous reading, both for the technical nature of the information they offer and for the accumulation of news in such a small space. The non-transmission of information due to the quality and quantity of the indications (not making people understand is almost like not saying), continues to justify the appellation of liar.
As regards the sphere in which the term may have originated, we have some clues thanks to a research by the MIUR aimed at investigating "The language of the cities": from the investigations carried out in 9 cities on twelve informants for each city it appears that the term is not as well known and widespread as one might think and that the coinage sector would appear to be the medical-hospital sector, therefore a playful para-slang voice, favorably received by the ordinary citizen who, backed by the authority of the doctor, has no difficulty in reusing it and spread it. The technical name of leaflet as well as being longer and more difficult, it lacks the ironic coloring that makes terms such as liar; altri esempi di procedimenti simili possiamo trovarli proprio in ambito medico dove spesso al nome di malattie insolite, sconosciuto e di difficile accessibilità, si preferisce un appellativo “familiare” che diventa poi il modo comune e diffuso per indicarle (grazie anche all’abuso che ne viene fatto dai mezzi di comunicazione): un esempio per tutti la famigerata mad cow to indicate thebovine spongiform encephalopathy.
From the survey mentioned above, the word is not too common in spoken language, but it will be enough to do a quick search on the net to find many written attestations also on the official sites of the regional ASLs: this wide circulation in the mass media has perhaps sanctioned the recognition of the word liar which was first recorded as a neologism in the Annals of the Italian Contemporary Lexicon.Neologisms 1993-94 (edited by Michele A. Cortelazzo, Padua, Esedra, 1995) and then in the most recent Vocabolari dell'uso, the DISC (Dizionario Italian Sabatini-Coletti, Florence, Giunti, 1997) and the GRADIT (Great Dictionary of Italian for Use by Tullio De Mauro, Turin, UTET, 1999-2000).
Another sign of the success and total lack of technicality of this appellation is its extension in other areas to indicate different objects: these are uses certified in the press or on the Internet, of more or less recent diffusion, but which certainly have not taken root as instead happened for the primary meaning. On the site of an Italian science fiction magazine (www.delos.fantascienza.com) I found named liar il testo contenuto nella quarta di copertina di un libro: dal contesto – che riporto – “chi ha scritto il bugiardino in quarta di copertina aveva probabilmente letto solo le prime pagine del libro” si deduce che chi ha scelto di usare questo termine voleva mettere in luce la scarsa veridicità della descrizione fornita ai lettori. Edoardo Raspelli nelle pagine dell’inserto «Tuttolibri» del quotidiano «La Stampa» chiamaliar the hotel brochure, also in this case not without a little controversy.
The areas of use of liar they are therefore various and different, but the constant that seems to characterize the choice of this appellation is that of being attributed to illustrative texts (leaflets of medicines, back covers and leaflets) which are believed to hide, more or less covertly, some deception».
