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oath

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /əʊθ/, US /oʊθ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English āþ (“judicial swearing, solemn appeal”) (about 725, in Beowulf),[2][3][4] from *aiþaz,[2][3][4] cognate with Old Saxon ēth, Dutch eed, German Eid, Old Norse eiðr and Gothic aiþs.[2][3][4] Outside Germanic it is probably related to Old Irish ōeth, oath,[2][3][4] and Merriam-Webster takes the Germanic word to be of Celtic origin;[5] Etymonline thinks the history obscure and possibly non-Indo-European.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A solemn appeal to God or a sacred thing as witness of truth or a promise: about 1000 in the OED, about 725 in Barnhart.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

A careless use of a sacred name in ordinary speech, a profane oath or curse, is from late Old English, about 1175 in the OED,[3][6] and probably about 1350 in Barnhart.[2] An oath in a looser sense, an emphatic statement, is from 1600.[6] In Australian and New Zealand English, my oath! is an exclamation meaning yes, of course (1859).[6]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – āþ.[2]
  • c. 1175 – a profane oath.[6]
  • 1600 – an emphatic statement.[6]
  • 1859 – my oath! (Australia).[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A solemn promise or declaration, often calling on God or a sacred object as witness.
  2. under oath: having sworn to tell the truth, as in court.
  3. A swear word; a curse.

Word family

  • Hippocratic oath
  • affirmation
  • swear
  • oath-taking

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press