truthful

Etymology

It is formed from English truth + -ful.^[2][3][4][5] Its base goes back to Old English triewð, also treowð.^[3] An older formation on the same pattern is trothful, recorded from about 1390,^[2] and Etymonline also notes Middle English treuful (“devoted”) from the early 14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Faithful, loyal: about 1550, in the Scottish Clariodus: “The trewthfullest in love, and gentillest wight.”^[2] This sense is recorded only until 1578.^[2] The revised OED thus antedates the 1989 edition's 1596,^[6] Etymonline's 1590s^[3] and the 1590–1600 of the Random House text.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense keeps the old meaning of truth, faithfulness or loyalty,^[3][2] and it soon gave way to the sense of conforming to fact: M. Parker's Whole Psalter, perhaps of 1567, has “Fast truthfull worde confoundth all blame”.^[2] Merriam-Webster also dates the word to about 1567.^[7] From 1568 it describes a person or a person's attributes, as telling or inclined to tell the truth;^[2] the 1989 edition of the OED had this sense only from 1787.^[6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives only this sense, and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it first.^[7][8] From 1781 it is also used of ideas and artistic representations, as true to life or exact.^[2][9]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – Scottish, faithful, loyal (obsolete, last recorded 1578).^[2]
• c. 1567 – of a statement, conforming to the truth; sincere.^[2][7]
• 1568 – of a person, telling or disposed to tell the truth.^[2]
• 1781 – of an idea or artistic representation, true to life; accurate.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person, telling or inclined to tell the truth; honest or candid: a truthful witness at the inquiry.^[7][9][8][2]
2. Of a statement, conforming to the facts; true and sincere: She gave a truthful answer.^[2][8]
3. Of a depiction or idea, faithful to reality; realistic or accurate: a truthful picture of village life.^[9][2]

Word family

• truthfully
• truthfulness
• overtruthful
• untruthful

Related words

• truth
• true
• troth
• trothful

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins