mistrust

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English mistrusten,^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English mis- (“badly, wrongly”) + trusten (“to trust”).^[5][6][3][7] The Shorter Oxford thinks it was probably modelled on Old French mesfier, now méfier,^[7] and the OED compares mesfier, recorded about 1460.^[6] The noun, mistrust in Middle English, is formed in the same way from the prefix and the noun trust, after the verb.^[6][5][2] The prefix is mis-, from Proto-Germanic *missa- (“divergent, astray”);^[5] the noun is probably from Old Norse traust (“help, confidence, protection”) and its verb treysta.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lack trust or confidence: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[6] Etymonline dates both the verb and the noun to the late 14th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the verb transitively, for having no confidence in a person, about 1390,^[6] and in Troilus and Criseyde (about 1385) for doubting a thing;^[6][8] the noun, lack of trust, follows in Gower before 1393, and Chaucer's Troilus also has "som mystrust or nice strif" in love.^[6][2] From the mid-15th century mistrust could also mean to suspect that something has happened or will happen, a use now regional,^[6] and Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "diffidence; suspicion; want of confidence".^[9] In Scotland and northern and western English dialect the verb, in forms such as mistrist, meant to distrust or to suspect, and mistrustful meant timid as well as suspicious.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1382 – to lack trust or confidence.^[6]
• c. 1385 – to doubt the truth of something, in Chaucer.^[6]
• c. 1390 – to have no confidence in a person, in Chaucer.^[6]
• before 1393 – noun, lack of trust, suspicion, in Gower.^[6]
• c. 1450 – to suspect that something is the case (now regional).^[6]
• 1552 – reflexive, to lack confidence in oneself, in Latimer.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of trust or confidence; suspicion or distrust: Years of broken promises had left a deep mistrust between the two villages.^[3][11][6]

Verb

1. To have no trust or confidence in; to be suspicious of: She mistrusted the salesman's smile.^[3][11][6]
2. To have doubts about the truth, value or effectiveness of something.^[3][6]
3. (regional) To suspect or surmise that something is the case.^[6][10]

Word family

• mistrustful
• mistrustfully
• mistrustfulness
• mistruster
• mistrustingly
• unmistrusting

Related words

• distrust
• trust
• mis-

Usage notes

Klein, quoted by Etymonline, called mistrust the etymologically correct form, both of its parts being Germanic, whereas distrust (noun 1510s, verb in its modern sense 1540s) has the Latin prefix dis-.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b 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)
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins