Thing Not To Be Today: plausible.

 The Russian government has long practised* plausible deniability. The idea is that if something can't be proved to be false, then other people are obliged, as a matter of good manners, to believe it.

Unfortunately for them, the saying the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me has long ago come into force, and now no one is going to believe a word any Russian government official says, unless it can be proved to be true.

Still, it's a good word, plausible. It means apparently true, but the implication, or at least the suspicion, is that it's not. A plausible character is almost certainly a con-man.

The origin of the word plausible is much more respectable than such a person deserves.

Thing Not To Be Today: plausible. This word comes from the Latin plausibilis, worthy of applause, from plaudere, to applaud.

Still, I suppose we do applaud actors, don't we, and we all know what they're saying isn't true.

*That's how we spell it in England when it's a verb.