betroth

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bitreuthen, also bitrouthen,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English bi- + treuthe (“truth, pledge”).^[3][5][6][7] The base is from Old English trēowþ (“truth, pledge”),^[8][9] from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō,^[1] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid, steadfast”).^[9][8] The form was later assimilated to troth,^{[3][6][10][7]} a variant of truth.^[3][9] Mätzner, cited by the OED, suggested that the verb was made on the analogy of Old English trēowsian (“to give one's word, pledge”),^[3][11] and Weekley compares French fiancer, from Latin fidēs (“faith”), and engaged, from gage.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To promise to marry a woman: 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne,^[3][4] "Þou shal nat betrouþe a womman with hand þe whylys here husband ys lyuand".^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was said of a man, who gave a pledge of marriage or promised to marry a woman.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the sense of contracting a woman in marriage to another person to the 1560s,^[9] and the OED has it from 1566, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure,^[3] but the MED already has a daughter who "was bytrewthed" to Harold in 1448.^[2] The passive, which merges the two senses, was in use before 1592,^[3] and it is now the common construction.^[3][6] The word was extended to God and his people in the King James Bible (1611),^[3] and to the bishop chosen for a church: Johnson (1755) gives "to nominate to a bishoprick, in order to consecration", and in 1773 adds that the first sense was used of either men or women.^[13] A general sense "to pledge, engage" was used from 1573 to 1670.^[3][6] The derivatives came later: betrothed, the person one is engaged to, is late 16th-century,^[6] and betrothal dates from 1844.^[4][14] Collins now labels the verb archaic.^[15]

Timeline

• 1303 – to promise to marry a woman.^[3][4][2]
• 1448 – to give a woman in marriage.^[2] The OED first records this in 1566.^[3]
• 1573 – to pledge, engage (obsolete by 1670).^[3]
• 1611 – figurative, of God and his people.^[3]
• 1658 – to pledge oneself to a cause (obsolete by 1674).^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To promise someone in marriage to another; mostly passive, to be engaged to marry: The duke betrothed his daughter to a young diplomat.^[5][8][6]
2. (archaic) To promise to take someone in marriage; to plight one's troth to.^[5][3][15]
3. To give or pledge in religious faith; of God, to bind his people to himself.^[5][3]
4. (obsolete, 1573–1670) To pledge or engage.^[5][3][6]

Word family

• betrothal
• betrothed
• betrothment

Related words

• troth
• truth
• true

Usage notes

The OED's entry, first published in 1887, explains that because troth had a short vowel, many speakers carried the same sound over to the verb, though it calls the pronunciation rhyming with clothe and loathe the historical one.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins