truth

Pronunciation

• IPA: /truːθ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English treuthe, inherited from Old English trēowþ (“faith, fidelity, loyalty; pledge”), West Saxon trīewþ,^[2][3][4] from trēowe (“faithful, true”),^[3][5][6] the source of true, with the abstract noun suffix -th.^[2][7] It is reconstructed as from Proto-Germanic *treuwaz “having good faith”,^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *deru- (“to be firm, solid, steadfast”),^[2][4] the root also of tree, trust and truce.^[2] troth is a doublet.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Faithfulness, loyalty to a person or cause: about 893^[9] or before 899.^[3] Middle English treuthe “the quality of being true” is from 1137, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The original sense of truth, like true, was faithfulness and loyalty.^[10] A solemn pledge or promise is from about 1000, especially of marriage, from about 1275.^[9] Truthfulness, sincerity, is from the 14th century.^[9] “Something that is true, a true statement”, as in tell the truth, is from about 1378, in Piers Plowman,^[3] or the mid-14th century.^[2] Conformity with fact, accuracy, is from 1570.^[3] Etymonline notes that English, like most Indo-European languages, has no basic verb for “to speak the truth” to set against lie.^[2] Byron popularized truth is stranger than fiction in Don Juan (1823),^[10] and Arthur Ponsonby wrote in 1918 that “when war is declared, Truth is the first casualty”.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 893 – faithfulness, loyalty.^[9]
• c. 1000 – a pledge.^[9]
• 1137 – the quality of being true.^[3]
• 14th century – truthfulness.^[9]
• c. 1378 – a true statement.^[3]
• 1570 – accuracy.^[3]
• 1823 – truth is stranger than fiction.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The quality of being true or in accordance with fact.
2. That which is true; the real facts: tell the truth.
3. A fact or belief accepted as true: the truths of science.
4. Sincerity in action or speech; honesty.
5. (archaic) Faithfulness, loyalty.

Word family

• truthless
• truthlessness

Related words

• true
• untrue
• troth
• trust
• truce
• tree
• betroth
• truthful

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press