WHITE lie vs. BLACK lie

[Tomas]

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", question 5

It's all right to tell a ......... lie.

(a) red
(b) white
(c) blue
(d) black

Test No. incompl/inter-14 "Popular Idioms (1)", answer 5

It's all right to tell a white lie.

Correct answer: (b) white

Your answer was: incorrect
It's all right to tell a black lie.
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why do you say WHITE lie and not BLACK lie?

Tomas

[Torsten]

Hi Tomas,

Thank you for your question. The expression a white lie is an idiom - it means an unimportant lie (especially if an unimportant lie (especially one told to be tactful or polite).

There probably idioms with colours in your language and you can try to see what happens if you change a colour in that expressions...

TOEIC listening, question-response: Where did you get that outfit?

[Ahmadov]

Interestingly enough, if you translate "white lie" into Azeri it would mean "a blatant lie".
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Learning is a sacred engagement.

[Ft_Louie]

I think a lie itself is "black" so we needn't call it "black" ^^ and so a white lie is the only exception.