trust

Pronunciation

• IPA: /trʌst/^[1]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English truste, probably borrowed from Old Norse traust (“help, confidence, protection”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *traustą,^[2] related to Old Norse traustr (“strong”).^[5] The verb is from Old Norse treysta (“to trust, rely on, make strong”).^[2][6][5] Its cognates include Dutch troost (“comfort”), German Trost (“comfort, consolation”) and Gothic trausti “agreement”.^[2][7][8] Etymonline relates it to Old English trēowe (“faithful”), the source of true, from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid, steadfast”).^[2][4] Hoad calls its early history obscure.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Confidence, reliance: probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[3] or about 1200,^[2] when it also meant religious faith.^[2] The verb “to have faith or confidence” is also from about 1200.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

“Confident expectation, hope” is from about 1200,^[10] and “reliability, fidelity” from about 1300.^[2] The verb “to believe, give credit to” is by the mid-14th century, and “to rely or depend on” from the late 14th.^[2] The legal sense, confidence placed in one who holds property for its owner, is from the early 15th century,^[2] and property held in this way from the mid-15th.^[2] Credit given to a buyer is trust from 1573.^[10] A group of businesses under one control is a legal sense attested by 1877; it became a major American political issue, hence trust-buster by 1903.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – confidence; to have confidence (Ancrene Riwle).^[3][2]
• c. 1300 – trustworthiness.^[2]
• early 15th century – in law.^[2]
• 1573 – commercial credit.^[10]
• 1877 – a business trust.^[2]
• 1903 – trust-buster.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Firm reliance on the integrity, ability or character of a person or thing.
2. Custody, care; something committed to another's care.
3. The obligation of one in whom confidence is placed.
4. (law) A legal arrangement by which property is held by one party for the benefit of another; the property so held.
5. A combination of firms that reduces competition.
6. Commercial credit.

Verb

1. To have or place confidence in; to depend on.
2. To expect with assurance; to hope.
3. To place in another's care; to entrust.
4. To extend credit to.

Word family

• truster
• trustability
• trustable
• trustingly
• trustingness
• antitrust
• entrust
• intrust

Related words

• true
• truth
• trow
• tryst
• trusty
• trustee

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary distinguishes trust, which implies deep feeling often based on inconclusive evidence, from faith, confidence, reliance and dependence.^[11]

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 h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin