attest

Etymology

It is borrowed from French attester (in Old French atester, recorded from the 13th century),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin attestor (“to bear witness to, confirm, prove”),^[2][3][7][8] formed from ad- (“to”), in its assimilated form, and testor (“to bear witness”),^[3][2][7][9] from testis (“witness”).^[2][3][7][8] Barnhart adds that it may also be partly a back-formation from attestation, recorded from 1451.^[10][9] The same Latin noun is the source of testament, testify, detest and contest.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bear witness to, affirm the truth of: 1590, in Spenser's Faerie Queene.^[2] Barnhart dates the same passage to 1596,^[9] while Merriam-Webster gives about 1500,^[5] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English the early 16th century,^[6][11] and Dictionary.com 1590–1600.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From witnessing in general the verb narrowed to formal certification, by signature or oath (1665).^[2] Things as well as people could attest from before 1616, when Shakespeare's Henry V has the sense "to be evidence of";^[2][6] the intransitive attest to follows in 1672.^[2] Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida (1609) has both the sense "to call to witness", which Johnson (1755) still listed with an example from Dryden,^[2][13][6] and the noun attest, testimony, now obsolete.^[2][5][13] From 1685, in the colonial records of Pennsylvania, it meant to put a person under oath,^[2] and in Britain later to enrol a recruit.^[6] In British usage attested cattle or milk are certified free of disease,^[5][6] and in linguistics a word is attested when its use is documented.^[5]

Timeline

• 1590 – to bear witness to, affirm the truth of.^[2] Barnhart dates it to 1596, also in the Faerie Queene.^[9]
• 1609 – to call to witness (archaic); noun, testimony.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1606.^[5]
• before 1616 – of things, to be evidence or proof of.^[2]
• 1665 – to certify formally, by signature or oath.^[2]
• 1672 – intransitive, to bear witness, testify.^[2]
• 1685 – to put a person under oath.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To declare something true or genuine, especially as a witness by signing: Two neighbours attested her signature.^[14][5][2]
2. To be evidence of; demonstrate: The worn steps attest the age of the chapel.^[14][5][2]
3. (intransitive, usually with to) To bear witness to something.^[14][2]
4. To show that a word or form was in use at a given time: The spelling is attested from the 1590s.^[5][14]
5. To put someone under oath; to enrol a recruit.^[2][6]
6. (British) To certify livestock officially as free from a disease.^[5][6]
7. (archaic) To call someone to witness.^[2][6][13]

Noun

1. (obsolete) Testimony, witness.^[5][2][13]

Word family

• attestant
• attestation
• attester
• attestable

Related words

• testament
• testify
• testimony
• detest
• contest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins