A false title is a description placed before a person’s name as if it were a title, used to present information in a nutshell. It is controversial, but serves as a form of shorthand in journalism. It is not to be confused with actual titles, such as royal titles. The term “false title” is also used to describe claimants to aristocratic titles who take titles they are not entitled to.
In English usage, a false title is a description of a person placed before their name as if it were a title. For example, an article about a new scientific discovery might describe the discoverer as “known scientist Jane Smith.” This is an example of a fake title. This form of use is not intended to deceive, but to present information in a nutshell.
The term ‘false title’ exists to indicate the contrast between a description given in this way and an actual title. When an actual title appears in a sentence, it comes before the noun in the same way. For example, the same article might describe the discoverer as “Professor Jane Smith.” which would be her real title. Custom places royal titles in front of a person’s name, as in the cases of “Mr. Jones”, “Reverend McGinty” or “President Lincoln”. A fake title is therefore essentially a description of an individual presented as if it were a title.
Many in the news community consider Time magazine to be the originator or popularizer of this form of reporting. Accordingly, another name for the false title is “time-style adjective.” This type of description serves as a form of shorthand, identifying the role an individual plays in a story without distracting the reader with additional clauses.
The false title is a controversial element of the writing style. Roy Reed, a former New York Times reporter, described the fake headlines as “deceptive, confusing, lazy and embarrassing.” These descriptors, however, remain common enough that novelists such as Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, have adopted the fad in an effort to give literary prose some of the immediacy of journalistic writing.
A variant of the false title is the addition of a definite article. For example, instead of “noted scientist Jane Smith,” a newspaper article might describe an individual as “noted scientist Jane Smith.” This usage typically occurs when the person being referred to is sufficiently well known that normal usage, which appears to introduce the person, would seem redundant.
Journalistic use is not the only possible meaning of the phrase “false headline”. Claimants to aristocratic titles often take for themselves titles they are not entitled to, or invent titles that never existed. This phrase can also be used to refer to them, but it’s not a specific technical term like in journalism.
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