credible

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman credible and partly borrowed from Latin crēdibilis (“believable, worthy of belief”),^[2][3] which the American Heritage Dictionary, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster give as the source,^[4][5][6] formed on crēdō (“to believe, trust”) with the suffix that became -ible.^[2][7][8] The Latin verb is also the source of credit and creed.^[7][9] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from the early 12th century, meaning believable or trustworthy.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of information or evidence, able to be believed and worthy of trust: a1393, in Gower's Confessio Amantis.^[2] Barnhart dates the word to about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius,^[7] which the OED dates ?c1400 for the sense "believable" of an account.^[2] Of a person or source it is recorded from 1420.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Two older senses have died out: "inclined to believe, credulous" (c1425), now replaced by credulous, and "of good repute, creditable" (1543), which survives only of a performance or effort.^[2][6][11] Johnson (1755) defined it as deserving belief, quoting Hooker on how things are made credible.^[12] In northern Yorkshire dialect creedible meant trustworthy or respectable.^[13] The newest sense, "convincing as a real possibility", began in 1960 with nuclear weapons judged likely to be used, the credible deterrent,^[2][11] and spread to threats, candidates and rivals in general.^[2][8] The noun credibility is recorded from 1594.^[7]

Timeline

• a1393 – of information or evidence, worthy of belief.^[2]
• 1420 – of a person, trustworthy.^[2]
• c1425 – (obsolete) credulous.^[2]
• 1543 – creditable, reputable.^[2]
• 1594 – credibility.^[7]
• 1960 – of a weapon or threat, convincing as a real possibility.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Able to be believed; plausible: Her account of the evening was entirely credible.
2. Deserving trust; reliable: a credible source.
3. Convincing as a real possibility or as a serious contender: The party has no credible candidate for mayor.

Word family

• credibleness
• credibly
• credibility

Related words

• credit
• credence
• credential
• creed
• credulous
• incredible

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists credible among words easily confused with creditable and credulous.^[3]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)