liar’s loan
n.— «You rarely hear anything about individual borrowers who tell little white lies, the ones who obtain so-called “liar loans,” but they’re just as prevalent, if not more so. A young New Jersey couple, “the Deceivers,” said they intended to occupy the seaside house they were purchasing. When the mortgage insurance company checked, it found out they had bought the place strictly as an investment and were renting it out. So it kicked the loan back to the lender, and again, the lender called the loan due.» —“Mortgage Detectives Root Out Application Lies” by Lew Sichelman Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) Nov. 9, 1992. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What’s up with ketchup? The shifting history and spelling of the name of this condiment. For centuries, ketchup was a fishy sauce originating in Asia—the tomatoes came only later! Plus, a new book shows what’s lost when a language dies: when there...
Lisa from Tabernacle, New Jersey, grew up using the term cabbage night to refer to the night before Halloween when all manner of mischief takes place. The term itself goes back to the 1860s, while the custom of pranks on October 30 is older. The...