soothsayer

Etymology

It is formed from English sooth + sayer,^[2][3][4] first as Middle English soth-seier,^[5] sothseyer,^[4][6][7] literally a speaker of truth.^[7] Etymonline also has the Kentish spelling zoþ ziggere and the form sothseggere.^[5] The first part, sooth, is from Old English sōþ (“truth; true”),^[5] from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz,^[5][8] which Etymonline traces to the present participle of Proto-Indo-European *es- (“to be”).^[5] Old English had comparable formations in soðsecgan (“to speak truly”) and sōþsagu (“true speech”).^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who speaks the truth, a truthful person: the first record is in the Ayenbite of 1340,^[2] and Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century, adding the sense of a candid adviser.^[5] The Dictionary.com text gives the range 1300–50.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense lasted until 1642,^[2] and in Gower the word can still mean one who tells the truth.^[10] Beside it, from 1381 in the Rolls of Parliament, stood the sense of one who claims to foretell events,^[2] which Etymonline dates to the late 14th century.^[5] This became the only living human sense: Johnson (1755) defines the word only as a foreteller or prognosticator, quoting Shakespeare's "A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March".^[11] The word sooth itself became archaic in English.^[5] In 1855 the name was transferred to the mantis.^[2] The noun soothsay, first recorded in 1549, and the verb, from about 1600, are back-formations from it.^[2][5][4]

Timeline

• 1340 – one who speaks the truth (obsolete after 1642), in the Ayenbite.^[2]
• 1381 – one who claims to foretell the future, in the Rolls of Parliament.^[2]
• 1855 – a mantis.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who claims to foretell the future; a prophet, seer or diviner: The king summoned a soothsayer before the battle.^[12][2][3]
2. A mantis.^[2][4][3]
3. (obsolete, 1340–1642) A person who speaks the truth.^[2][3]

Word family

• soothsay

Related words

• forsooth
• sooth
• sayer
• soothsaw
• soothsaying

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins