NODE / 0698attestedPresent-Day English

truth

TRANSLITERATION truthPRONUNCIATION /truːθ/

conformity to fact or reality; sincerity; fidelity

DATE: before 12th century–today
SENSE: fact reality fidelity
FAMILY: Indo-European / Germanic
CANONICAL KEY: node:1:truth:attested:sense:fact-reality-fidelity

Merriam-Webster reports the earliest use in the archaic fidelity or constancy sense.

ANCESTRAL EDGES

ROOT OF THIS ROOT

GO DEEPERcontinuationestablished

Middle English · Middle English · faith loyalty truth

trewthe

loyalty, fidelity, truth

SOUND: Modern truth continues Middle English trewthe through English spelling and sound history.
MEANING: Fidelity and constancy coexist historically with sincerity and factual correspondence.
CHRONOLOGY: Merriam-Webster reports use before the twelfth century.
SCHOLAR: Merriam-Webster Editors · American Heritage Dictionary Editors
CONFIDENCE: established

Truth — Definition, Word History, and First Known UsesupportsWord History, definitions, and First Known Use

Supplies Middle English trewthe, current senses, and the early fidelity horizon.

ORIGINAL ↗

Truth — American Heritage DictionarycontextHeadword etymology

Independently supplies the loyalty history.

ORIGINAL ↗

OPEN CANONICAL EDGE 676 ↗

DIRECT DESCENDANT EDGES

THE NEXT HISTORICAL STEP

No reviewed descendants currently reuse this node. Absence describes the graph, not the entire history of the form.

TRANSITIVE DESCENDANT CLOSURE

EVERY REVIEWED BRANCH FROM HERE

This is the complete downstream closure currently supported by the canonical graph. Every displayed step is a real reviewed edge with its own sound claim, meaning claim, scholar, confidence, and citations.

UNIQUE DESCENDANT NODES: 0
REVIEWED EDGES: 0
DEEPEST PATH: 0
MODERN DOSSIERS REACHED: 0

No downstream edge has cleared review for this node. This is a graph-coverage statement, not a claim that the historical form produced nothing.

“Every” means every descendant in the reviewed SET-U graph. It does not convert missing scholarship or missing ingestion into a claim of historical completeness. The coverage ledger remains the honest denominator.

RECORDED EVIDENCE

ATTESTATIONS / FIRST KNOWN USE

SOURCE-REPORTEDlexicographic first useestablished

before 12th century

Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for truth

Source-reported earliest written record located by current scholarship; no underlying Old English object was directly inspected.

truth dossier · recorded as truth

Merriam-WebsterWITNESS RECORD ↗Truth — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use ↗

EDITORIAL REUSE

WORD DOSSIERS USING THIS NODE

01truthtruth · established