[Fantasywriter]

It’s possible to be too rigid:

But bold-faced goes back to Shakespeare in the sense of a shameless or impudent appearance, so it’s reasonable that a boldfaced lie is one told with a shamelessly bold face. At times it’s regarded as an error, though it’s to be found almost as early as barefaced lie:

The sneer, the sarcasm, the one-sided statement, the perplexing reference, the qualified concession, the bold-faced lie, — all these we could well illustrate by samples of the current crop.

Eclectic Review, Sept. 1832.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bal2.htm

[Windflier]

Thanks for that. I love reading about the history and evolution of our language.