vérité

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ve.ʁi.te/^[1]

Forms

vérité f (plural vérités)^[1] Old French veritiet, veritet (about 1050), veriteit; the modern form dates from 1553; the Académie wrote verité in 1694 and 1718 and vérité from 1740.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vēritās (“truth; reality; uprightness”), from vērus (“true”), the source of vrai.^{[3][2][5][6][7]} This early learned form lived beside forms that came down orally, vertet (980) and verté (12th century), and replaced them.^[2][6][1]

Compare Old Occitan veritat, Spanish verdad and Italian verità.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Léger (late 10th century) veritiet is religious truth as opposed to error; the Vie de saint Alexis has veritet about 1050.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From about 1165 it meant the agreement of an account with the facts, and generally the agreement of an idea with its object and of what one says with what one thinks, as opposed to a lie.^[3][2] A proverb of about 1210 says Vertez c'est la massüe Qui menteor ossist et tüe (“truth is the club that kills the liar”).^[3][8] En bonne vérité (about 1390) became en vérité (about 1460), and à la vérité (1485) came to introduce a restriction (1670).^[2] Truth is personified in 1485–1490: Dame Loyauté dort Et Verité est morte.^[3]

Dire à quelqu'un ses vérités “to tell someone home truths” dates from the mid-16th century, later intensified as ses quatre vérités.^[2][3] L'heure de vérité (about 1924) is probably a calque of Spanish la hora de la verdad, the decisive moment of a bullfight, and caméra-vérité (about 1964) of Russian kino-pravda.^[2]

Timeline

• late 10th century – Veritiet in the Vie de saint Léger.^[3]
• c. 1165 – Agreement with the facts, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[3]
• c. 1460 – En vérité.^[2]
• 1553 – The form vérité.^[2]
• 1567 – Dire à quelqu'un ses vérités in Amyot.^[3]
• 1656 – Les vérités de l'Évangile in Pascal.^[3]
• c. 1924 – Heure de vérité.^[2]
• c. 1964 – Caméra-vérité.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. truth, the agreement of thought with reality: la recherche de la vérité.^[9][10]
2. A truth, a true proposition: les vérités éternelles.^[10]
3. What really happened; the facts: dire la vérité.^[10][9]
4. Dire à quelqu'un ses (quatre) vérités: to tell someone some home truths.^[2][3]
5. En vérité: truly, à la vérité: admittedly, to tell the truth.^[2]
6. L'heure de vérité: the moment of truth.^[2]

Word family

• véritable
• contrevérité

Related words

• vrai
• véridique
• vérifier
• Latin vēritās
• English verity

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 288a
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)