Over the years I have used the phrase '(someone saying) that which is not' (or 'not true') and I know that in at least some cases the reference was lost on the audience, so I thought I'd write this down somewhere.
Gulliver's Travels have been adapter into various form of media and is referenced in pop culture in various ways.
From using 'Lilliputian' to refer to something very small, to the use of big-endian and little-endian to refer to how multi-byte values are ordered in memory in some storage or communication stream, the stories still live on.
I have always loved the turn of phrase of the Houyhnhnms, who are good and noble and don't have a word for lying, and instead use 'to say a thing which is not' when they don't believe the stories Gulliver tells them. There's something in how roundabout that is that I find deeply funny for some reason.
If you haven't read the travels yet, Project Gutemberg has a couple of editions and has you covered.
I would recommend an annotated version if possible, as there are a lot of "insider" references from the time that a regular reader (like myself) would certainly miss.
Happy reading!
Tags: writing