Believe it or not, I’m lost for a word

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Koala bears aren’t bears. Fun runs can hurt.

We call such things misnomers but I needed something else, a label to capture the sense of “despite calling this a thing, it’s not really the thing”.

The FIFA Peace Prize, say, is not a real thing. Or it is a thing but not an actual thing. Is there a word for that?

Fake lacks nuance. Travesty seems too loaded. What sits between bogus and authentic? Maybe a surrogate, a virtuality? No doubt German has a suggestion as the English lexicon seems bereft.

Two years ago Hugh Grant toasted (and roasted) writer-director Richard Curtis at the 15th Governors Awards in LA. When bestowing an........

© Brisbane Times