Unsubstantiated

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Unsubstantiated
/ʌnsəbˈstanʃɪeɪtɪd/ (adj.)

A bullshit artist’s tell. Something inconvenient or embarrassing that happened, but for which there is currently no proof or credible supporting or evidence.

To be contrasted something that did not happen, which may comfortably described as “false”.

Thus, it is easy enough to disarm, by asking, “but is it untrue?”

“Substantiation” is thus a second-order property of a fact: something that, in the eyes of the outside world, falls, in Rumsfeld’s taxonomy, between a “known known” and an “unknown known” — call it a “suspected known” —but to the person making the statement, is squarely in the latter category.

See also

• Truth
• Rumsfeld’s taxonomy