soothe

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sothen (“to verify”), also soðien and soþi,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English sōþian (“to show to be true, bear witness, confirm”), also gesōþian,^[5][6][4][7] from sōþ (“true”), the source of sooth.^[5][3][8][9] The Old English verb continues Proto-Germanic *sanþōną (“to prove”), whose other descendants include Old Norse sanna (“to assert, affirm”) and Old High German sandōn (“to prove, testify”);^[10][5][11] the OED also compares Danish sande.^[5][7] Köbler traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”),^[10] the root the American Heritage Dictionary gives for it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To prove or show something to be true, to verify it: in Old English, first in the Lindisfarne Gospels,^[5][6] which Barnhart dates to about 950.^[12] The Middle English verb kept this sense, to bear witness or confirm, from about 1175.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

The modern meaning grew out of the old one through a chain of 16th-century senses: to declare a statement true or uphold it (before 1556), to back up a person in what they assert (1544), to encourage or humour someone by agreeing with them (1569), and to flatter or cajole someone by assent (1580).^[5][13][14] Etymonline explains the step as assuaging someone by telling them that what they say is true, and compares Old English gesōþ (“a parasite, flatterer”).^[4] Weekley quotes Lyly's Euphues for those that "sooth young youths in all their sayings".^[15] From the late 17th century the verb meant to calm or comfort a person, first recorded in Dryden's translation of Virgil (1697).^[12][6][4] From the early 18th century it also meant to ease a pain or an emotion (1711).^[4][6] The older senses had all died out by the early 19th century.^[5][6] A rare noun, a soothing feeling, is a back-formation of the mid-20th century.^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 950 – Old English sōþian, to prove true, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[5][12]
• c. 1175 – Middle English sothen, to bear witness, confirm.^[2]
• 1544 – to support a person in an assertion (obsolete by 1623).^[5]
• before 1556 – to declare a statement true, to corroborate it.^[5] Barnhart dates this sense to before 1553.^[12]
• 1569 – to encourage or humour a person by assent.^[5] Barnhart dates it to 1568.^[12]
• 1580 – to flatter or cajole a person by agreeing (obsolete by 1796).^[5]
• 1697 – to calm, comfort or mollify, in Dryden's translation of Virgil.^[12]
• 1711 – to ease the intensity of a pain.^[4]
• 1947 – noun, a soothing feeling or effect.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a person or animal calm or quiet; to comfort or placate: She rocked the crying baby to soothe him.^[16][11][6]
2. To ease or relieve a pain, an ache or a feeling: A cup of honeyed tea will soothe a raw throat.^[16][11][6]
3. To have a calming or relieving effect.^[11]
4. (obsolete) To prove or show to be true; to verify or confirm.^[5][16][6]
5. (obsolete) To humour or flatter a person by agreeing with them.^[5][16][6]

Noun

1. (rare) A soothing feeling or effect.^[5][6]

Word family

• soother
• unsoothed
• soothing

Related words

• sooth
• soothsayer
• forsooth

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 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster