troth

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See also: Troth

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English troth, trothe, trouthe, trowthe, a variant of treuth, treuthe, treouthe (allegiance, fidelity, faithfulness, loyalty; oath, pledge, promise; betrothal or marriage vow; betrothal; honour, integrity; holiness, righteousness; confidence, trust; creed, faith; fact, reality, truth), from Old English trēowþ, trīewþ (truth, veracity; faith, fidelity; covenant, pledge),[1] from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō (contract; promise), equivalent to true +‎ -th. See more at truth.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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troth (countable and uncountable, plural troths)

  1. (countable, archaic) An oath, pledge, or promise.
    1. (countable, archaic) A pledge or promise to marry someone.
      • 1850, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., Canto XXVII:
        ...I envy not the beast that takes
        His license in the field of time,
        Unfetter'd by the sense of crime,
        To whom a conscience never wakes;
        Nor, what may count itself as blest,
        The heart that never plighted troth
        But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;...
      • 1872 June, Mar Travers, “The Lord of Misrule”, in The Nautical Magazine for 1872: A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs, volume XLI (New Series), London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., []; and J. D. Potter, [], →OCLC, pages 506–507:
        It follows, as a natural consequence, that the two who stood alone in the new faith, [...] should, finally, make mutual confession of the passion that had surprised both, in the early pride of man and womanhood; should exchange rings, and plight troths where the pleasaunce joined the river, as young lovers do still probably exchange rings and plight troths, by the old Cheshire river.
      • 1893, Henry James, “Collaboration”, in The Wheel of Time; Collaboration; Owen Wingrave, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers publishers, →OCLC, page 110:
        Vendemer’s sole fortune is his genius, and he and Paule, who confessed to an answering flame, plighted their troth like a pair of young rustics or (what comes for French people to the same thing) young Anglo-Saxons.
    2. (countable, archaic) The state of being thus pledged; betrothal, engagement.
  2. (countable, uncountable, archaic) Truth; something true.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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troth (third-person singular simple present troths, present participle trothing, simple past and past participle trothed)

  1. (obsolete) To pledge to marry somebody.

References

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  1. ^ treuth, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 28 May 2018.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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