English

true

/tɹuː/
Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

    Etymology graph

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English treowe, trew, trewe, triwe, true, trwe, from Old English trēowe, trīewe (“faithful, true”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiz (“faithful, true”), from pre-Germanic *drewh₂yos, from Proto-Indo-European *drewH- (“firm, hard, true”).

    Cognates

    Cognate with Saterland Frisian trjou (“honest”), Alemannic German trüüw (“loyal”), Dutch trouw (“loyal, true”), German treu (“loyal, true”), Luxembourgish trei (“loyal”), Danish tryg (“safe, secure”), Faroese and Icelandic tryggur (“faithful, loyal; safe”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish trygg (“safe, secure”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍅𐍃 (triggws, “true; faithful, loyal”); also Irish dearbh (“sure”), Old Prussian druwis (“faith”), Ancient Greek δροόν (droón, “firm”)), extension of *dóru (“tree”) (possibly also Proto-Slavic *sъdorvъ (“healthy”) from the same root). More at tree. For the semantic development, compare Latin robustus (“tough”) from robur (“red oak”).

    Etymology 2

    Variant of truce.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishtrewe “faithful, loyal”
      • inheritedOld Englishtrīewe “faithful, loyal, true”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*triuwī
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*triwwiz “loyal, faithful, true”
            • derivedProto-Indo-European*drew- “faithful, true”

    Related: Saterland Frisian trjou, Alemannic German trüüw, Dutch trouw, German treu, Luxembourgish trei, Danish tryg, fo,is tryggur, nb,nn,sv trygg, Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍅𐍃, Irish dearbh, Old Prussian druwis, Ancient Greek δροόν, Proto-Slavic *sъdorvъ, Latin robustus

    Words built on it: true-up

    Sources