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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL1 source section across 1 headword matching “Fait”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
FaitEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
Various origins: * A variant of German Veit. * Borrowed from Czech or Polish Fait, both from the German surname. * Perhaps from an obsolete English personal name derived from Anglo-Norman afaitie (“accomplished, skillful”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
betroth
To promise in marriage; a Middle English prefixed formation built on the same historical noun that yielded truth and troth.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗troth
Pledged fidelity, good faith, or betrothal; a surviving historical twin of truth rather than a later poetic fabrication.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗true
In accord with fact, reality, or a standard; historically an inherited word whose older center is firmness, faithfulness, and steadfastness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗trust
Assured reliance, confidence, or responsibility; probably entering Middle English from Scandinavian material meaning confidence and firmness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗truth
Conformity with fact or reality; inherited through Old English trēowþ, whose recorded semantic field includes fidelity, loyalty, and constancy.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*treuwaz
firm, faithful, trustworthy
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic horizon
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 5
*treuwithō
faith, loyalty, truth
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic horizon
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 3
trewe
faithful, steadfast, true
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
troth
pledged fidelity, good faith, or betrothal
- DATE
- 12th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
true
in accord with fact; faithful; accurate
- DATE
- before 12th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
trēowe
faithful, firm, trustworthy
- DATE
- Old English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
trēowþ
faith, loyalty, fidelity, truth
- DATE
- Old English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 3
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 2
Has troth always meant only a marriage promise?
No. Its reported meanings include fidelity, loyalty, good faith, pledged word, and betrothal.
Did true originally mean only factually correct?
No. The reviewed English history foregrounds faithful, steadfast, loyal, and trustworthy senses before and beside modern factual accuracy.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 4
Truth began with firmness and fidelity.
Before truth centered factual correspondence, its family named what was firm, faithful, and steadfast.
True was steadfast before it was merely factual.
Old English trēowe meant faithful; its Germanic *treuwaz branch reaches reconstructed *deru- “firm, solid, steadfast; wood, tree.” Factual accuracy is real, but not the whole history.
Trust is confidence made firm.
The likely Scandinavian noun belongs to a Germanic family of firmness and faith. Its exact Old Norse donor remains probable rather than certain.
Truth and troth were once one word family in plain sight.
Middle English trouth and Old English trēowþ covered truth, faith, loyalty, and pledged fidelity before the modern words specialized.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “fait.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
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