entrust

Etymology

It is formed from English en- + trust,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the noun taken with the prefix in its sense "put in".^[3] The variant intrust has in- instead.^[7][2][6] The second element is probably from Old Norse traust (“help, confidence, protection”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give a person the responsibility for something, with no further construction: about 1450, in Charles d'Orléans's poems, in the OED's revised entry.^[2] Other dictionaries date the word much later: Merriam-Webster to 1593,^[5] Dictionary.com to 1595–1605,^[8] Etymonline to about 1600^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 17th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The modern constructions appear in Sidney's Arcadia (before 1586): entrust someone with a task, and entrust something to someone.^[2] From 1602 it could also be followed by an infinitive, entrust someone to do something,^[2] which the Shorter Oxford now calls archaic^[7] and Collins considers incorrect.^[9] The bare use without a following construction is now rare.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered the word only as intrust, to treat with confidence or to charge with a secret commission or something of value;^[10] Etymonline treats that spelling as obsolete,^[3] while Merriam-Webster and Collins still list it as a variant.^[5][9]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – to give someone a responsibility (now rare in this use).^[2]
• before 1586 – entrust with, to charge a person with a task, and entrust to, to put something in a person's care.^[2]
• 1602 – with an infinitive, to entrust someone to do something.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give someone a duty, task or valuable thing to look after, usually followed by with: The club entrusted him with the accounts.^[9][5][2]
2. To put something into someone's care or keeping, usually followed by to: She entrusted her savings to a cousin.^[9][5][2]

Word family

• entrustment

Related words

• trust
• true

Usage notes

Collins considers entrust someone to do something incorrect: the verb there is trust ("the clerk cannot be trusted to file the papers").^[9] The spelling intrust is a less common variant.^[5][9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.