Where does “tell-truth” come from?
tell-truth (English) comes from English truth, from Middle English troute, from Old English truht, from Old French truite, from Latin tructa, from Ancient Greek τρώκτης, from Ancient Greek -τής, from Ancient Greek πεῖρα — passed , crossed.
tell-truth (English): An honest and truthful person
Definitions
- An honest and truthful person
Ancestry of “tell-truth”, step by step
tell-truth traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English truth
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | truth | True facts, genuine depiction or statements of... |
| 2 | Middle English | troute | trout certain fish of the genus |
| 3 | Old English | truht | trout |
| 4 | Old French | truite | — |
| 5 | Latin | tructa | a kind of trout |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | τρώκτης | gnawer, nibbler; greedy knave; kind of fish with... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | -τής | Appended to verbs to form agent nouns |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | πεῖρα | trial, experiment, attempt |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |
via English tell
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | tell | To count, reckon, or enumerate; To narrate; To... |
| 2 | Middle English | tellen | to count; to tell |
| 3 | Old English | tellan | to count, calculate; to tell, narrate, recount;... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | talljan | to count, to enumerate; to recount, to tell |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | taljaną | to enumerate, count; to account, recount, tell |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | talą | speech; number |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | dol- | reckoning, calculation, fraud; calculation, fraud |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | del- | to aim, calculate, adjust, count; to reckon,... |