Etymologically
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credo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkreː.doː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkrɛː.do][1]

Forms

crēdō (present infinitive crēdere, perfect active crēdidī, supine crēditum); third conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *krezde/o-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱred-dʰeh₁- (“to put one's heart (in), believe”), a compound of a form of Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr (“heart”), the source of cor, with *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[2][1] De Vaan explains the Latin form from a cluster *-ddh- that became *-zd-; the Plautine subjunctive creduam suggests that the second part was replaced by *deh₃- (“to give”).[2]

Cognate with Old Irish creitid (“believes”), Welsh credu (“to believe”), Sanskrit श्रद्दधाति (śraddadhāti, “trusts, believes”) and Avestan zrazdā- (“trusting, believing”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Livius Andronicus onwards.[2] In Plautus a miser speaks of the man “who entrusted this gold to me”.[3] Lewis and Short take it to have belonged first to the language of business, meaning to lend.[4]

Semantic evolution

It meant to entrust something to someone and to lend money, as when Cato tells the farm manager to lend to no one without the owner's order.[3][4] With the dative it meant to trust or rely on someone and to believe a person or a report, and with an accusative to accept something as true.[3]

It also meant to regard as or to suppose, and a bare credo “I suppose” was often added to a sentence.[3] In Christian Latin Credo, the first word of the creeds, became a noun for the creed itself.[5][6][7] It survives as Romanian crede, Italian credere and Old French croire.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it for entrusting and lending.[3][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it for lending money.[4][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for believing reports.[3][6]
  • first half of the 12th century – Honorius Augustodunensis uses Credo for the creed.[6]
  • early 13th century – English takes credo for the creed sung in church.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To entrust, commit (to someone's care).[3][4]
  2. To lend (money); to give credit.[3]
  3. To trust, rely on.[3][1]
  4. To believe (a person, a report); to accept as true.[3][1]
  5. To regard as, consider.[3]
  6. To suppose, think, credo I suppose.[3][1]

Noun

  1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The creed.[5][6]

Word family

  • accrēdō
  • concrēdō
  • crēdibilis
  • credito
  • crēditor
  • crēditrīx
  • crēditum
  • crēdulus
  • discrēdō
  • incrēditus
  • incrēdundus
  • crēdibiliter
  • English creed
  • English credit
  • English credible

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes fidere, to trust in someone's strength or help, from credere, to believe in their good intentions, citing Livy's consuls who did not so much distrust their soldiers' courage as their loyalty.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper