| 释义 |
▪ I. truth, n.|truːθ|
Forms: α. 1 triewþ, treowþ, trywþ, 2 treothe, 2–3 treouþe, 2–4 trewþe, 2– 5 treuthe, 3 treowthe, treoþe, (treweiðe), 3–5 treuþe, 4 treuþ, (tryuþe, treweþe, -ethe, trewht, Sc. treutht, trewcht, 4–5 Sc. trewtht), 4–6 trewth(e, 4–7 treuth, 5 trewþ, (treut, truyt, þreuth, treweth, 6 trewith, -ythe, troeuth, treugth). β. 3–4 truþe, 4 truþ, 4–7 truthe, (5 truwþe, trwth), 6–7 trueth, 4– truth.
[OE. tríewþ, tréowþ, trýwþ, ME. trewþe, treuþ(e, f. OE. triewe adj., true: see -th1. Cf. OHG. triuwida, ON. tryggð.
The β-forms perh. show a different ablaut grade, u beside eu, eo, whence OE. trúwa, trúa, faith, good faith (see truce), trúwian to trow, trust, confide, and ON. trúr true; but, as trūþ does not appear before the 13th c., when u and eu (ew) in other words had phonetically fallen together, it is possible that ME. truthe really comes from OE. treowþe. See also troth.]
I. The quality of being true (and allied senses).
1. a. The character of being, or disposition to be, true to a person, principle, cause, etc.; faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, constancy, steadfast allegiance. (See also troth 1.) Now rare or arch.
αc893K. ælfred Oros. v. ii. §6 Þær dydon þeah Romane lytla triewþa. c1000ælfric On Old Test. (Gr.) 1 Heora ᵹemynd þurhwunað..for..heora trywðe wið god. c1200Vices & Virtues 103 For ðare gode trewðe ðe ðu him bere. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 98/203 Bi þe treuþe þat i schal to Mahon. c1390Chaucer Compl. Damours 7 On hir,..Which hath on me no mercy ne no rewthe That love hir best, but sleeth me for my trewthe. c1470Henry Wallace iii. 274, I knaw he will do mekill for his kyne; Gentryss and trewtht ay restis him within. c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) xxvi. 33 Thay wald be rewit, and hes no rewth;..Thay wald be trowit, and hes no trewth.
β1530Palsgr. 283/2 Truthe, uerite, loialte. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 729 The king had alwayes known his truth and fidelitie towarde the crowne of Fraunce. 1611Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 107 Briefely dye their ioyes, That place them on the truth of Gyrles, and Boyes. 1719Free-thinker No. 137. ⁋6 Lucius..preserving still his Truth to Marcia. 1800Coleridge Christabel ii. 78 Alas! they had been friends in youth; But whispering tongues can poison truth. 1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. ix. xii. 345 Truth to himself; that is to say, the resolution to do his duty by his art.
†b. by my truth, as an asseveration. (Cf. troth 1 b.) Obs.
13..Guy Warw. (A.) 405 Bi mi trewþe y schal þe swere, Schal y mi fader þe tiding bere. 1563in Child-Marriages 59 [He] promysed, bie his faith and treuth, that [etc.]. 1605Camden Rem. 222 By my trueth, wife (quoth he) [etc.].
†2.
a. One's faith or loyalty as pledged in a promise or agreement; a solemn engagement or promise, a covenant: = troth 2. Obs.
αc1000ælfric Exod. vi. 5 Ic ᵹemunde minra treowþa þe ic Abrahame behet. 1154O.E. Chron. an. 1137 Hi hadden him manred maked & athes suoren, ac hi nan treuthe ne heolden, alle he wæron forsworen & here treothes forloren. c1205Lay. 10631 Heo sworen..& treoðen heo plihten [c 1275 treuþe him plihte]. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 3584 Þis luþer saxons abbeþ gret dedeyn Vor to holde me treuþe. a1330Otuel 311 Selpe me gode.., Eiþer oþer his trewþe pliȝte, Vppon morwen for to fiȝte. c1400Laud Troy Bk. 877 My trewthe .I. layd, To do al as thow hast sayd. 1460J. Capgrave Chron. (Rolls) 182 He cursed the Kyng of Scottis for brekyng of his treuth, whech he had mad to the Englisch Kyng. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 183 To the end, that under treuth thei mycht eyther gett the Castell betrayed, or elles some principall men..tackin at unwarres.
βc1450J. Metham Wks. (E.E.T.S.) 42/1114 To serue yow be-ffore alle odyr my trwth I plyght. 16..Young Beichan xiii. in Child Ballads ii. (1884) 470 I'll give thee the truth of my right hand, The truth of it I'll freely gie.
b. spec. in reference to marriage; also, in quot. a 1300, betrothal. Obs.
αc1275Lay. 2251 Locrin was on foreward Hire habbe to wife And he hire hafde treouþe i-pliþt.
βa1300K. Horn 674 Muchel was þe ruþe Þat was at þare truþe. c1440Gesta Rom. xii. 37 (Harl. MS.) The maide saide, she wold consent; and þer they pliȝt hire truthe.
†3.
a. Faith, trust, confidence. (Cf. troth 3 a.) Obs.
αa1300Cursor M. 14072 (Cott.) Þi mikel treuth Has þe saued. 1375Barbour Bruce iv. 223 (Cambr. MS.) He wes fule,..That gaf treuth [Edin. MS. throuth; ed. 1620 traist] to that Creature.
β13..Cursor M. 21406 Thoru þair stedfast truth in dright. 1677Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 552 You shall not repent any truth you repose in me.
b. Belief; a formula of belief, a creed. (Cf. troth 3 b.) Obs.
13..Cursor M. 4246 (Gött.) Putyfar..held ioseph in mensk and lare Al þou þair treuthes sundri ware. 1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 8 The hard hertis, and untrewe treuth of the pagans. 1500–20Dunbar Poems ix. 57 The Articulis of Trewth,—in God to trow,..And in his haly blissit Sone, Jesu.
4. Disposition to speak or act truly or without deceit; truthfulness, veracity, sincerity; formerly sometimes in wider sense: Honesty, uprightness, righteousness, virtue, integrity.
α13..Cursor M. 13891 (Cott.) Þat neuer leigh, ne neuer sale, For wijt and treuth he has ai hale. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xii. 284 Trewth þat trespassed neuere ne transuersed aȝeines his lawe, But lyueth as his lawe techeth. c1400Non-Cycle Myst. Plays, Pride of Life 330 Dred of God is al ago And treut is go to ground. Ibid. 334 And truyt is don of dau. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xii. 30 Fredome returnis in wrechitness, And trewth returnis in dowbilness. 1535Coverdale Ps. cxviii. [cxix.] 30, I haue chosen the waye of treuth. a1657Sir W. Mure Sonn. i. 12 Extold by treuth of thy most loyall word.
β13..Cursor M. 9661 (Cott.) Dom þan com foluand in hi, And Iuged þam in sothfast truth. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 775 [They] lacked eyther wit or truth. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 804 Loue is all truth, lust full of forged lies. 1596― Merch. V. iv. i. 214 Malice beares downe truth. 1611Bible Ps. li. 6 Thou desirest trueth in the inward parts. 1680Burnet Rochester (1692) 55 Truth is a Rational Natures acting in conformity to itself in all things. 1750Gray Elegy 69 The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. iii. 16 Do you doubt my truth? 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xx, ‘La, there an't any such thing as truth in that limb’, said Rosa, looking indignantly at Topsy.
II.
5. a. Conformity with fact; agreement with reality; accuracy, correctness, verity (of statement or thought).
α1570Levins Manip. 96/5 Trewth, veritas. Vntruth, error.
β1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. (S.T.S.) II. 422 Tha declair the truth of the Catholick religioune. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. v. iv. 124 If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. 1628Prynne Cens. Cozens 65, I haue here sufficiently euidenced the trueth of this Assertion. 1718Prior Solomon Pref., In this case Probability must attone for the want of Truth. a1829J. Young Lect. Intell. Philos. xxxviii. (1835) 382 Truth is the agreement of our ideas and words with the nature of things. 1849James Woodman vii, There is some truth in what you say.
b. Agreement with the thing represented, in art or literature; accuracy of delineation or representation; the quality of being ‘true to life’. Also, in Arch., absence of deceit, pretence, or counterfeit, e.g. of imitation of stone in paint or plaster.
1828Duppa Trav. Italy, etc. 105 The interior of the two houses of Pansa and Sallust..restored..with great apparent truth. 1840C. O. Müller's Hist. Lit. Greece xi. §7. 135 These pictures..had a striking truth. 1890C. H. Moore Gothic Archit. viii. 286 In truth and skill of modelling even the sculptures of Chartres and St. Denis..surpass these of Wells.
6. Agreement with a standard or rule; accuracy, correctness; spec. accuracy of position or adjustment; often in phrase out of truth. So out-of-truth n. Cf. true n. 3.
1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. i. 2 This Instrument will come to the Truth, as well as a Needle of greater charge. 1707Mortimer Husb. 43 To make them [ploughs]..go true depends much upon the truth of the Iron-work. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 590 Otherwise the door, when put together, will be out of truth. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 609 The best fowls..as to truth of feather, condition, and general character. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 5831, The friction..allows the wheels to rotate with perfect truth and freedom. 1967L. Holmes Odhams New Motor Man. viii. 189/1 Out-of-truth produces irregular tyre wear.
7. Genuineness, reality, actual existence.
1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. iii. 14 Thou art fram'd of the firme truth of valour. 1603― Meas. for M. iii. i. 166 She (hauing the truth of honour in her). 1842Tennyson Morte D'Arthur 291 On to dawn, when dreams Begin to feel the truth and stir of day. 1844Mrs. Browning Lost Bower xlvii, The golden-hearted daisies Witnessed..To the truth of things,..And I woke to Nature's real.
8. Particle Physics. = top n.1 18. [An arbitrary choice of name.]
1977Sci. Amer. Oct. 74/2 If the two new quarks do exist, there must also be two new properties of matter, which some physicists have taken to calling ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’. 1978[see top n.1 18]. 1979Nature 6 Dec. 546/2 They have included evidence for the ‘gluon’ (the photon of the quark-quark force), and excited states of the upsilon (which contains a beauty quark and its anti⁓particle), but ‘truth’ (the quark beyond and pairing with beauty) remains to be found.
III. Something that is true.
9. a. True statement or account; that which is in accordance with the fact: chiefly in phr. to say, speak, or tell the truth (also arch. without the), to speak truly, to report the matter as it really is (see also say v.1 11, speak v. 23, tell v. 18). Cf. sense 12, from which this is not always distinguishable.
Prov. tell (say, speak) the truth and shame the devil: see shame v. 4 d.
α1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 133 Þis I trouwe beo treuþe! hose con teche þe betere, Loke þou suffre him to seye. c1400Destr. Troy 2338 Yf ye wilne for to witte how hit worthe shulde, I shall telle you the trewthe. c1440Jacob's Well 152 Þerfore, levyth ȝoure lesynges, & spekyth trewthe.
β1548Patten Exped. Scotl. Pref. a v, An Epigram.., the whiche I had, or rather (to saie truth and shame the deuel, for out it wool) I stale.. from a frende of myne. 1576Gascoigne Philomene xcviii, Truth is truth, and muste be tolde. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 137 The truth you speake doth lacke some gentlenesse, And time to speake it in. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 632 A man to say truth well skilled in antiquities. 1735–8Bolingbroke Parties Ded. 18 Truth may sometimes offend. 1823Byron Juan xiv. ci, Truth is always strange; Stranger than fiction. 1869Lowell Lett. (1894) II. 42 Tell us the truth as much as you like,..but tell it in a friendly way.
b. loosely. Mental apprehension of truth (in sense 11); knowledge.
1644Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 98/1 Assertions, the knowledge and the use of which cannot but be a great furtherance..to the enlargement of truth. 1843Lowell Glance behind Curtain Poems (1844) 176 Men..Made wiser by the steady growth of truth.
c. (Also with capital initial.) A game in which players have to answer truthfully questions put by the others or, in some forms of the game (called truth, dare, promise, etc., according to the rules), fulfil an alternative requirement.
1868L. M. Alcott Little Women I. xii. 191 Do you know ‘Truth’?.. The person who draws at the number has to answer truly any questions put by the rest. 1928Sat. Even. Post (U.S.) 29 Sept. 7/1 The ancient game of truth had begun. ‘What's your favorite color, Bill?’ 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. xviii. 377 In ‘Truth, Dare, and Promise’ each player has to agree either to tell the truth, accept a dare, or promise to do as he is told. 1969― Children's Games ix. 265 In Kidderminster the game is occasionally called ‘Truth, Dare, Promise, or Kiss’; in Peterborough and Swansea, ‘Do, Dare, Kiss, or Promise’; in Gloucester, ‘Truth, Dare, Warning, Love, Kiss, or Marriage’; ..in Aberdeen, ‘Truth, Dare, Force, or Promise’... At Spennymoor,..the game is called ‘Truth, Dare, Will, Force, and Command’. 1970Times 8 July 2/7 On one occasion she said, Carole Hanson..stripped to her panties during a game of ‘truth, dare and promise’. 1980G. M. Fraser Mr American xiii. 270 Playing truth or consequences in..Sir Charles's drawing-room.
10. a. True religious belief or doctrine; orthodoxy. Often with the, denoting a particular form of belief or teaching held by the speaker to be the true one; esp. in Quaker language. Cf. also sense 11.
αc1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 607 Twa knychttis..Þe quhilk petir..Conuertit... And fra thay þe treutht had tane [etc.]. 1562Winȝet Cert. Tract. iii. Wks. (S.T.S.) I. 25, I can espy na thing thairin abhorring fra the treuth. 1567Gude & Godlie B. (S.T.S.) 8 Heir him that preiche the word of treuth.
β1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 205 Þere is no verrey martirdom bot it be by meynteninge of truþe [v.r. truwþe]. 1556Olde Antichrist 9 b, Fauourers of the gospelles truthe. 1655Milton Sonn., Massacre Piedmont 3 Them who kept thy truth so pure of old When all our Fathers worship't Stocks and Stones. 1662in Extr. S.P. rel. Friends ii. (1911) 144 It is ordered that there be a Collectione this month for the seruis of the truth. 1710O. Sansom Acc. Life 40 The Friend was declaring the Truth, when the Priest..came in. 1795J. Macknight Epist. (1820) III. 147 The inspired writers often call'd the Gospel Revelation, The Truth. 1893A. Birrell Res Judicatæ 134 The Church became a Living Witness to the Truth.
b. Conduct in accordance with the divine standard; spirituality of life and behaviour. (Cf. sense 4.)
α1382Wyclif John iii. 21 He that doth treuthe, cometh to the liȝt, that his workis be schewid, for thei ben don in God. ― 1 John i. 6 If we shulen seie, for [1388 that] we han felauschip with him, and we wandren in derknessis, we liȝen, and we don not treuthe. ― 2 John 4, I ioyede ful miche, for I foond of thi sones goynge in treuthe, as we receyueden maundement of the fadir.
β1526Tindale John iii. 21 He that doth the trueth [1534 Tindale, Geneva, doth truth; Cranmer, 1611 trueth] commeth to the light.
11. a. That which is true, real, or actual (in a general or abstract sense); reality; spec. in religious use, spiritual reality as the subject of revelation or object of faith (often not distinguishable from 10).
αc1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 13 Crist is a corner stoon, and groundiþ al treuþe. 1382― John viii. 32 Ȝe schulen knowe the treuthe, and the treuthe schal delyuere ȝou [1388 make you fre]. Ibid. xiv. 6, I am weye, treuthe, and lyf. 1458in Parker Dom. Archit. III. 44 Now God geve us grace to folowe treuthe even That we may have a place in the blysse of heven. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 31 The trewth, will, and commaundement of the heauenly father must be accomplished.
β1547–64Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 145 Forasmuch as God is the trueth, & that truth is God, hee that departeth from the one departeth from the other. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. v. 18 In knowledge there is no slender difficulty,.. truth..wise men say doth lye in a well. 1785Reid Intell. Powers 277 The light of truth..fills my mind. 1819Keats Ode Grecian Urn 49 Beauty is truth, truth beauty. 1855Brewster Newton II. xxiv. 340 Truth has no greater enemy than its unwise defenders. 1895H. R. Reynolds in Expositor Jan. 75 God's thought is our most conclusive definition of truth. 1895V. Lee in Contemp. Rev. Mar. 346 Truth is perceived by flashes.
b. Personified; spec. each of the two goddesses of truth in ancient Egyptian mythology.
α1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 12 Þis Tour & þis Toft..treuþe is þer-inne,..he is Fader of Fei, þat formed ow alle.
β1553Bale Gardiner's De vera Obed. H j b, I..am compelled to take my wyfe Truthe to me. 1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 74 So Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licencing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falshood grapple. 1858Wilkinson in Rawlinson Herodotus ii. lviii. II. 101 note, The sacred beetle of the sun, overshadowed by the wings of two figures of the goddess Thmei, or ‘Truth’. 1910Mrs. H. M. Tirard Bk. of Dead v. 125 The weighing of the soul takes place in the great hall of the two truths in the Heliopolis of the nether-world. The two goddesses of truth at the eastern and western ends of the hall.
12. a. The fact or facts; the actual state of the case; the matter or circumstance as it really is. (Cf. sense 9.)
αc1450Mankind 831 in Macro Plays 31 The prowerbe seyth ‘þe trewth tryith þe sylfe’.
β1340–70Alex. & Dind. 275 Of þat þou senteste, sire king, to say þe truthe Of al þe lore of our lif..haue vs exkused, For we ne konne þe nouht kenne our costomus alle. c1537R. De Benese Measurynge Lande X iv, They make the square therof muche lesse than the truthe. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iv. xiv. 126 She sent you word she was dead: But fearing since how it might worke, hath sent Me to proclaime the truth. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 52 The said Commissioners are to report to this Board the Truth of the Fact. 1748Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 202 We judge the Distances to be less than the Truth. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert xxvii. 362 If he does not know, he more than suspects the truth.
b. The real thing, as distinguished from an imitation; the genuine article; the reality corresponding to a type or symbol, the antitype. Now rare or Obs.
1531Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VI. 20 Item, for romaney buge to lyne the samyn goune, all truth..xiij li. ix s. a1653Gouge Comm. Heb. ix. 23 (1655) 390 His body was the truth of the Tabernacle:..His mediation the truth of the incense:..He the truth of most types. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 270 [The parrot's] voice..is more like a man's than that of any other [bird]; the raven is too hoarse, and the jay and magpie too shrill, to resemble the truth.
c. ? Actual property or nature (of something). rare.
1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion Rubric (ad fin.), It is against the truthe of Christes true naturall body, to be in mo places then in one, at one tyme.
13. with a and pl. A true statement or proposition; a point of true belief, a true doctrine; a fixed or established principle; a verified fact; a reality.
αc1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 94 Prelatis constreynen men of symple vnderstondyng..to assente to here dampnacion of treuþes of goddis lawe.
βc1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 293 Þe creature þat telliþ hem a truþe in name of god. 1613Jackson Creed i. 42 Some notable truth, whose beleefe did concerne vs. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 60 The truths of religion are many times above reason, but never against it. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xii. 210 That women are menstruant, and men pubescent, at the year of twice seven, is accounted a punctual truth. 1758S. Hayward Serm. i. 3 This is not a fancy,..but is a truth built upon divine testimony. 1858O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. iii, Leave your friend to learn unpleasant truths from his enemies. 1876G. Macdonald T. Wingfold xiii, Something at the root of all facts—namely, truths, or eternal laws of being.
IV.
14. a. Phrases. (See also 9.) in truth, of a truth (arch.), † of truth, † for a truth (obs.): in fact, as a fact; truly, verily, really, indeed: mostly used to strengthen or emphasize a statement.
α14..Why I can't be a Nun 191 in E.E.P. (1862) 143 Hyt was a howse of nunes in trewthe,..But not welle gouernede, and þat was rowthe. a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 226 And for a treugth at thys season there was mortal warre betwene king Lewes and the duke of Borgoyne. c1560A. Scott Poems (S.T.S.) ii. 2 The grit Debait and Turnament Off trewth no toung can tell.
β1526Tindale Matt. xiv. 33 Of a truth thou arte the sonne of God. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §67 They did in truth desire it. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 84 These people pretend to blame him, whereas in truth they ought only to blame themselves. 1795Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 327 In truth, all these distempers pass my skill. 1873‘Ouida’ Pascarèl I. 57 Of a truth I loved you. 1884Pae Eustace 6 It was in truth a scene of great beauty.
†b. of (a) truth (predicatively): True; actually or really so. Obs. rare.
c1566J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World I j b, It is of a truth, that the Priests of the Heathen..were chosen [etc.]. 1590Webbe Trav. Epist. (Arb.) 13 In this booke there is nothing mentioned..but that which is of truth: and what mine own Eies haue perfectly seene.
c. ellipt. or as int. truth! either as an expression of assent (cf. true a. 3 b), or as intensive (= in truth). Cf. troth n. 4 c. arch.
1534Tindale Matt. xv. 27 She answered and sayde: truthe Lorde: neverthelesse the whelpes eate of the crommes. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 69 Truth said he, my predecessors..were much both better and greater than I. 1854Tennyson Geraint & Enid 289 Arms? truth! I know not.
V.
15. Combinations. a. attrib., as truth-breach, truth-claim, truth-frequency, truth-gold, truth-light, truth-relation, truth-world, truth-worship. b. instrumental, as truth-dictated, truth-filled, truth-led, truth-shod, truth-tried, truth-writ adjs.c. objective and obj. gen., as truth-finder, truth-hunter, truth-lover, truth-searcher, truth-seeker, truth-speaker, truth-teller, truth-unraveller; truth-bearing, truth-bending, truth-bringing, truth-compelling, truth-denying, truth-desiring, truth-loving, truth-painting, truth-passing, truth-perplexing, truth-revealing, truth-saying, truth-seeking, truth-speaking, truth-telling, etc., ns. and adjs. See also truthlike.
1847Card. Wiseman Ess., Unreality Anglican Belief (1853) II. 394 Such vivid, *truth-bearing phrase.
1977P. Johnson Enemies of Society xvii. 232 The title [sc. Travesties] reveals the fact that the whole play is an elaborate exercise in *truth-bending and symmetrical confusion. 1979Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 20 Sept. 2c/6 Tucson is..about to have a Liar's Contest to call its very own... Big Jim Griffith, banjo plucker, anthropologist, impresario, folklorist, Ph.D and himself no slouch in the truth-bending dept., phoned with the news.
1597Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 279 A grieuous crime of disloyaltie and *truth-breach.
1895Church Pascal Serm. xix. 319 Imagination is at once the most misleading and the most *truth-bringing of mental powers.
1909W. James Meaning of Truth xiv. 273 Good consequences..are proposed rather as the lurking motive inside of every *truth-claim. 1977A. Giddens Stud. in Social & Polit. Theory i. 78 An ‘empirical intersection’ subject to disputation in respect of truth claims.
1925Joyce Let. 27 Sept. (1957) I. 233, I am still under the influence of the ‘*truthcompelling’ drug, scopolamine.
1895Sayce Egypt of Hebr. & Herod. 94 Ameni the *truth-declaring name.
1850O. Winslow Inner Life iv. 119 *Truth-denying,..soul-destroying error.
1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem vi. 92 A *truth-desiring spirit.
1830Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) I. 278 The noxious and *truth-destroying practice of oath⁓taking.
a1770Chatterton On Mr. Alcock Poet. Wks. (1886) 107 In *truth-dictated lays.
a1847Eliza Cook Poems II. Pref. 7 Many a brave, *truth-filled mind.
1749Fielding Tom Jones vi. i, The *truth-finder, and the gold-finder.
1936Mind XLV. 501 The most complete and ingenious defence of the ‘*truth-frequency’ interpretation of probability statements. 1949A. Pap Elem. Analytic Philos. ix. 169 The truth-frequency of a form of influence is the limit approached by the ratio of the number of cases making both premisses and conclusion true to the number of cases making the premisses true.
1839Bailey Festus xix. (1848) 211 Some grains of *truth-gold.
1892A. Birrell Res Judicatæ (1893) 157 The anxious *truth-hunter.
1839Bailey Festus vi. (1848) 61 *Truth-led in Time's darkest hour.
1853Reade Chr. Johnstone vi, We'll fight for nature-light, *truth-light, and sun-light.
1852Tennyson Ode Wellington 189 *Truth-lover was our English Duke.
1828Carlyle in Foreign Rev. II. 439 He has every feature also of a just, quiet, *truth-loving man. 1856N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 16 Reasonable and truth-loving men.
1612Selden Illustr. Drayton's Poly-olb. i. 16 *Truth-passing reports of Poeticall Bards.
1735–6Thomson Liberty v. 610 *Truth-perplexing metaphysick wits. 1947H. Reichenbach Elem. Symbolic Logic iv. §33.178 The *truth-preserving property of derivational processes. 1969Aristotelian Soc. Suppl. Vol. XLIII. 77 It is tempting to generalize and actually define logical rules as truth-preserving grammatical rules.
1907W. James Meaning of Truth (1909) vii. 165 It is between the idea and the object that the *truth-relation is to be sought and it involves both terms. 1952Mind LXI. 193 The truth relation is repeatedly defined by Peirce in straightforward old-fashioned correspondence terms.
1600Fairfax Tasso v. lxvi, Ere *truth-reuealing time..Bewraid her act. 1895J. Kidd Moral. & Relig. x. 426 Truth-revealing teaching.
1552Huloet, *Trought sayinge, or spekinge, or tellyng, ueridicentia, ueriloquentia.
1928A. Huxley Point Counter Point xxvi. 443 *Truth-Searchers become just as silly..as the boozers.
1864Bowen Logic vii. (1870) 225 The inductive *truth-seeker.
1828*Truth-seeking [see open-minded adj. s.v. open a. 22 c]. 1852Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. xvi. 207 He is responsible..for the way in which he arrived at them [opinions]—whether in a slothful and selfish, or in an honest and truth-seeking manner. 1896W. James in New World V. 345, I..cannot see my way to accepting the agnostic rules for truth seeking.
1876Blackie Songs Relig. & Life 130 A *truth-shod Christian brotherhood.
1552Huloet, *Trought speker, ueridicus. 1711Pope Let. to Jas. Craggs 19 July, Their Method of Revenge on the Truth-Speaker is to attack his Reputation. 1552*Truth-speaking [see truth-saying]. 1856S. J. Rigaud Serm. Inspir. Script. i. 20 According to that general law of truth-speaking, which exacts not that a statement should be verbally correct, but that it should convey a true impression.
1552Huloet, *Trought speking, or sayinge, ueridicus. 1872Tennyson Gareth & Lynette 415 Bounteous, merciful, Truth-speaking, brave.
1552Huloet, *Trought teller, and trought speker. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. ci. v, For truth-tellers I will search the land. 1852Tennyson Ode Wellington 188 Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named. 1552*Truth-telling [see truth-saying]. 1803M. Charlton Wife & Mistress IV. 278 His system of truth-telling. 1847Helps Friends in C. i. i. 8 Truth-telling in its highest sense requires a well-balanced mind.
1756C. Smart tr. Horace, Sat. i. iv. (1826) II. 43 When *truth-telling Bacchus opens the secrets of his heart. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert viii, Impressions..confirmed by the truth-telling light of day.
1784Cowper Task iii. 56 The calm of *truth-tried love.
1850Bushnell God in Christ 59 Whosoever..would have the *truth-world over⁓hang him as an empyrean of stars.
1879Geo. Eliot Theo. Such iii. 55 This sort of *truth-worship.
d. Special Combs.: truth-condition (see quot. 1937); truth drug, any substance that is administered to a person in the supposition that it will prevent him from lying; truth-function (see quots.); hence truth-functional a., truth-functionality; truth-functionally adv.; truth game = sense 9 c above; also transf.; truth serum, a truth drug in the form of an injection; truth set (see quot. 1966); truth squad U.S. Politics, a group of people with the task of questioning the truth of statements made by members of an opposing party; truth-table, a tabular representation of the truth or falsity of a complex proposition as determined by the possible combinations of truth-values of its components; also transf., esp. in Computing; truth-value [ad. G. wahrheitswert(h)], the value of truth (or falsehood) assigned to propositions, esp. those of two-valued logic; also transf. and attrib.
1922tr. Wittgenstein's Tractatus 95 The proposition is the expression of its truth-conditions. 1937Mind XLVI. 191 Propositional complexes which are definable by reference to truth conditions i.e., to propositions whose truth-values are logically determined by the truth-values of their arguments. 1978P. Pettit in Hookway & Pettit Action & Interpretation 48 Incompatible sentences have truth conditions which we cannot conceive of as being simultaneously fulfilled.
1931‘A. Abbot’ Murder of Geraldine Foster xiii. 179 Neither the lie detector nor the truth drug have ever been officially adopted by the Police Department. 1947Lancet 4 Jan. 39/1 If an attempt were made to use a ‘truth drug’ against an accused person in an English criminal court, the judge would reject its results as an involuntary confession. 1969,1973[see Pentothal]. 1976T. Sharpe Wilt xiii. 140 You can put me on a lie detector. You can pump me full of truth drugs.
1909W. James Meaning of Truth i. 41 The reader will easily see how much of the account of the truth-function developed later in Pragmatism was already explicit in this earlier article. 1910Whitehead & Russell Principia Math. I. i. 8 We may call a function f(p) a ‘truth-function’ when its argument p is a proposition, and the truth-value of f(p) depends only upon the truth value of p. 1967Encycl. Philos. V. 76/2 Truth-function, a function whose arguments and values are truth-values. 1981Sci. Amer. Oct. 155/1 A complete account of how the truth value of a compound sentence is determined by its constituent sentences is called a truth function, and logicians customarily display the evaluation of the truth function in an array called a truth table.
1947Mind LVI. 237 A modern extensional logic containing the ordinary truth-functional modes of statement-construction. 1968Chomsky & Halle Sound Pattern Eng. 387 We note there that certain truth-functional conditions are required for the phonological rules.
1950W. V. Quine Methods of Logic (1952) §2.8 The property of truth-functionality..is thus enjoyed by negation, conjunction, and alternation. 1977Language LIII. 70 There was some confusion in my paper about pragmatics in philosophy and the loose way in which it is used in linguistics—unrelated, in many cases, to a semantic component based on truth-functionality.
1950W. V. Quine Methods of Logic (1952) §7.37 The one statement implies the other truth-functionally.
1935F. Scott Fitzgerald Taps at Reveille 66, I thought you might want to know... I thought maybe you thought I liked somebody else. The truth game didn't get around to me the other night. 1941‘N. Blake’ Case of Abominable Snowman xviii. 198 Since we seem to be playing the truth game..did you kill Elizabeth Restorick? 1980G. Mitchell Whispering Knights iv. 42 ‘Why don't we play the Truth Game?’ ‘Because nobody will tell the truth.’
1925F. J. Reynolds Marvels of 1924 44 Dr. House believes truth serum should be a part of every court and prison equipment. 1940[see scopolamine]. 1977J. Crosby Company of Friends vi. 43 Acetol is the strongest truth serum there is. Do you remember talking, talking, talking?
1963Truth set [see solution set s.v. solution n. 12]. 1966Britannica Bk. of Year 807/2 Truth set, a mathematical or logical set containing all the elements that may be substituted in a given statement of relationships without altering the truth of the statement (the equation x + 7 = 10 has as its truth set the single number 3).
1952Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News 3 Nov. 12/5 The Republican ‘Truth Squad’ after trailing President Truman across the country on his campaign trips, passed down its final verdict today that the President was ‘guilty of over 100 lies, half-truths and distortions.’ 1980Washington Star 31 Oct. b1/1 GOP leaders formed what they called a ‘truth squad’ to campaign this week because they said Democrats have avoided the issues.
1921E. Post in Amer. Jrnl. Math. XLIII. 166 The general notion of truth-table is not introduced [in Principia Mathematica]. Ibid. 167 So corresponding to each of the 2n possible truth-configurations of the p's a definite truth-value of f is determined. The relation thus effected we shall call the truth-table of f. 1937Mind XLVI. 191 Truth-tables which analytically exhibit the logical conditions under which a given truth-function..would be true, together with those under which it would be false. 1962Simpson & Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors xvi. 401 The above results may be most easily summarized for two transistors with two inputs A and B in the form of so-called truth tables, two of which are shown below. 1965P. Caws Philos. of Sci. xvi. 122 A decision procedure..for the sentential calculus..consists of constructing a truth-table for the wff in question. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing i. 26 From the truth table we can then derive a logical equation, which can be used as a basis for the program. 1977Sci. Amer. Sept. 84/2 The first step in the design of the circuit is the construction of a truth table that gives the desired output for every possible combination of inputs.
[1891G. Frege in Funktion, Begriff, Bedeutung (1975) 26 Ich sage nun: ‘der Wert unserer Funktion ist ein Wahrheitswert’ und unterscheide den Wahrheitswert des Wahren von dem des Falschen.] 1903B. Russell Princ. Math. 502 There are, we are told.., three elements in judgment: (1) the recognition of truth, (2) the Gedanke, (3) the truth-value (Wahrheitswerth). 1932Lewis & Langford Symbolic Logic vii. 215 In this calculus, it is important to distinguish the truth-values, 1, ?, and 0, from the truth-functions, p, Mp, and Np. 1936Wirth & Shils tr. Mannheim's Ideology & Utopia 13 The truth-value of human knowledge in general. 1966S. Beer Decision & Control viii. 165 Then this formulation is subjected to a truth-value analysis. 1978J. McDowell in Hookway & Pettit Action & Interpretation 129 Dummett's realist is attempting, with the truth-value-link manoeuvre, to respect that principle. 1981A. Born tr. F. Lasson in Dinesen's Lett. from Afr. p. xiv, The presumed documentary truth-value of the letters.
▸ Truth and Reconciliation Commission n. (also with lower-case initials) Polit. an official body charged with the investigation of claims of human rights abuses, esp. during a previous government or regime; spec. the commission set up by a South African Parliamentary Act on 26 July 1995 (see quot. 1995) to investigate claims of such abuses during the apartheid era.
1990N.Y. Times 3 June 6/1 The nine-member *Truth and Reconciliation Commission named in April by President Patricio Aylwin [of Chile] is charged with being ‘the moral conscience of the nation’. 1995Promotion of National Unity & Reconciliation Act in Juta's Statutes S. Afr. (1997) I. 2-398 To provide for the investigation and the establishment of as complete a picture as possible of the nature, causes and extent of gross violations of human rights..to provide for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 2001H. Gilbert Postcolonial Plays 25/1 The controversial work of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has spawned a number of bold and imaginative theatrical ventures in the post-apartheid period.
▪ II. truth, v.
[f. prec. n., in various independent senses.]
†1. trans. To believe, trust. Obs.
a1300Prayer to Virgin 24 in O.E. Misc. 196 Wil ich neuer eft more Lauedi for þine sake treuþen feondes lore.
†2.
a. intr. To plight one's troth; to enter into an engagement of marriage.
b. trans. To betroth, affiance: = troth v. Obs.
c1315Shoreham i. 1660 Ȝyf an oþer treuþeþ seþe Wyþ word of þat hys nouþe. c1330Arth. & Merl. (Kölbing) 8639 Þer treuþed Arthour Gwenore, his quen. c1412Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3690 She truthede was to Indibal.
†3. trans. To name or call truly; to describe with truth as. Obs. nonce-use.
1638Ford Fancies ii. ii, The ancients Who chatted of the golden age, feign'd trifles. Had they dreamt this, they would have truth'd it heav'n.
†4. intr. with it: To speak or deal truly (nonce-rendering of Gr. ἀληθεύειν in Eph. iv. 15). Obs.
1648T. Hill Serm. Truth & Love 21 Truthing it in love, which were an admirable motto for saints. 1656S. Winter Serm. Ep. Ded., I have without gall..managed this controversie, truthing it in love.
5. trans. To bring to ‘truth’ (truth n. 6), adjust accurately: = true v. 2.
1881J. W. Warman in Eng. Mechanic No. 874. 368/1 It permits of the removal of such Rails for any truthing which they may require.
Hence ˈtruthing vbl. n., † (a) the action of plighting troth, contract of marriage (obs.); (b) (see sense 5).
c1315Shoreham i. 1665 Bote ȝef þer folȝede þat treuþyng A ferst flesch ymone. Ibid. 1759 And ȝef þer hys condicioun Yset atter treuþynge. |