testify

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɛstɪfaɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English testifien,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin testificor (“to bear witness”) (late Latin testificāre),^[4][5][6] from testis (“a witness”)^[2][3][5] and -ficō (“-making”), from faciō (“to make, do”),^[5][3][7] with Barnhart positing a lost adjective *testificus (“making a witness”).^[5] Etymonline routes it through Anglo-Norman testifier.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To bear witness, intransitively, in Piers Plowman (B text, 1377);^[4][8] transitively, to affirm the truth of something, from 1393 in the C text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Of things, to serve as evidence of something, is recorded from 1445 (about 1400 in Etymonline).^[4][3] Tyndale's Bible (1526) brought in the religious senses, to profess openly one's faith and to declare solemnly,^[4][8] the second now obsolete except in biblical use;^[4] A noun testify, a certificate, appears once in Scots in 1600.^[4]

Timeline

• 1377 – to bear witness.^[4]
• 1393 – to affirm the truth of.^[4]
• 1445 – of things, to serve as evidence.^[4]
• 1526 – to profess or declare solemnly, in Tyndale.^[4]
• 1785 – to bear testimony (intransitive, in Cowper).^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make a statement under oath as a witness, especially in court.
2. To serve as evidence or proof of something.
3. To declare one's belief publicly, especially one's religious faith.

Word family

• testification
• testifier
• retestify
• untestifying

Related words

• attest
• testimony
• testimonial
• testament
• contest
• protest

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)