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vana, ‘weak,’ ‘futile,’ ‘ineffectual,’ “μάταιος”, of a person whose hopes, endeavours, or predictions are doomed to be disappointed or falsified. Cf. Liv. I. xxvii. 1, vanum ingenium, Virg. Aen.I. 392, ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes, where the explanation ‘impostors’ seems quite inappropriate, Juv.iii. 159, sic libitum vano qui nos distinxit Othoni, id. XIV. 211. It may be doubted whether the word ever has the force of ‘wilfully deceiving.’ See Henry on Virg. Aen.II. 80, and compare with his explanation VIII. 722, where fallere seems to have the same alternative force as mendacem used of Sinon.
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