sooth

True.

Adjective

  1. True.
  2. Pleasing; delightful; sweet.
    • The soothest shepherd that e'er pip'd on plains - 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […]...
    • With jellies soother than the creamy curd, And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon; […] - 1819, John Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison]...

Origin

From Middle English sooth, from Old English sōþ (“truth; true, actual, real”), from Proto-West Germanic *sanþ, from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz (“truth; true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sónts, *h₁s-ont- (“being, existence, real, true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Akin to Old Saxon sōþ (“true”), Old High German sand (“true”), Old Norse sannr (“true”), Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌾𐌰 (sunja, “truth”), Old English synn (“sin, guilt"; literally, "being the one guilty”). More at sin. See also soothe, derived from the same Old English word.

Forms

soother soothest

Related

forsooth soothe soothen soothfast soothly

Adverb

  1. In truth; indeed.
    • That shall I sooth (said he) to you declare. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9:

Noun archaic, uncountable

  1. Truth.
    • In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • […] "O Eginhard, disclose The meaning and the mystery of the rose"; And trembling he made answer: "In good sooth, Its mystery is love, its meaning youth!" - 1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a...
  2. Augury; prognostication.
    • The sooth of birds, by beating of their wings. - 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “December. Ægloga Duodecima.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […],...
  3. Blandishment; cajolery.
  4. Reality; fact.

Derived

forsooth in sooth insooth soothfast soothful soothless soothly soothsaw soothsay soothsayer soothsaying soothy

Noun alt of, alternative

  1. Alternative form of saunth (“type of chutney”).

Verb

  1. Obsolete form of soothe.
    • To be ſhort, a wretched and curſed generation they be; hypocrites, pretending friendſhip, but they can not skill of plaine dealing and franke ſpeech. Rich men they claw, ſooth up and flatter: the poore they contemne and...
    • Hereupon it is, that these sportulary preachers are fain to sooth up their many masters […] - 1649, Joseph Hall, Resolutions and Decisions of Divers Practicall cases of Conscience:
    • Muſick has Charms to ſooth a ſavage Breaſt, / To ſoften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak. - 1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act I, page 1:

Forms

sooths soothing soothed