Sooth

Word of the Day for Friday 14^th February 2014

Sooth \sooth\, noun:

1. truth, reality, or fact.

adjective:

1. true or real.

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 1600

But in the young man's heart there was no answering gladness, though in very sooth she was an exceeding handsome maid.
-- Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Lilac Sunbonnet: A Love Story, 1895

Sooth derives from the Old English soð meaning "truth, justice; reality." It shares this root with the word soothe, as reflected in soothe's earliest sense, "to verify."

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com