veritable

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman veritable and Old French veritable (“true, real”),^[2][3][4] formed from verité (“truth”), the source of verity, and the suffix -able.^[2][3][4] The Old French noun comes from Latin vēritās (“truth, truthfulness”), from vērus (“true”).^[3] In Anglo-Norman the adjective is recorded from 1260, meaning true, real, truthful or trustworthy, and also valid in law.^[5][3] The OED compares Italian veritevole and modern French véritable;^[2] Barnhart takes the 19th-century revival of the English word as probably a fresh borrowing of the modern French form.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a statement, true, in agreement with the facts: 1474, in Caxton's translation of the Game and Playe of the Chesse.^[2] The Middle English Dictionary has the senses "upright, honest" and "well grounded, factual" in a text by Scrope (composed 1450, manuscript before 1475),^[7] Etymonline dates the first sense to the early 15th century,^[3] and Barnhart dates the word probably before 1425.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were "true" and, of people, "speaking the truth"; the sense "genuine, actual" came later.^[8][2] The word seems to have fallen out of use by the middle of the 17th century and to have been revived early in the 19th;^[2][4] Webster (1828) still called it little used.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) nevertheless entered it as "true; agreeable to fact", quoting Shakespeare's "Most veritable".^[9] Etymonline describes the revival as an emphatic use after 1830, "the very", which by 1862 had extended to naming someone or something that has all the qualities of what is named.^[3][2] Today the word is mostly an intensifier before a noun, often a metaphorical one, while the plain sense "genuine, true" is rare.^[10]

Timeline

• 1474 – of a statement, true, in accordance with the facts.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense to the mid-15th century.^[3]
• 1483 – genuine, real; not counterfeit or false.^[2]
• 1489 – of people, truthful (obsolete by 1594).^[2][11]
• 1490 – as an adverb, truly (obsolete, rare).^[2]
• 1649 – applied to things or persons, real, correctly so called.^[2][11]
• 1831 – with the, in emphatic use.^[2][3]
• 1862 – having all the qualities of the person or thing named, as in a veritable hero.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Used before a noun, often a metaphorical one, to stress that it fits: truly deserving the name: After a week of rain the yard was a veritable swamp.^[10][2]
2. Real, genuine; not false, imaginary or metaphorical.^[12][10][2]
3. (rare or obsolete) Of a statement, true, in accordance with the facts.^[2][11][9]
4. (obsolete, 1489–1594) Of a person, truthful, veracious.^[2][11]

Word family

• veritableness
• veritably

Related words

• verity
• very

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 p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster