a. [f. L. vēridic-us (whence F. véridique, It., Sp., Pg. veridico), f. vērum truth, and dīc- stem of dīcĕre to speak.]
1. Speaking, telling or relating the truth; truthful, veracious.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, II. xxviii. 185. Who shall read this so veridical history. Ibid. (a. 1693), III. xlvi. 375. The veridical Triboulet did therein hint at what I liked well.
1784. S. Henley, Beckford’s Vathek, Note (1868), 147. Notwithstanding the reference of Ariosto to the veridical archbishop.
1816. Keatinge, Trav., I. 321. The veridical Gulliver.
1847. Medwin, Life Shelley, I. 359. That very veridical review which assumes to be the oracle … of literature.
1861. A. Hayward, Sel. Ess. (1878), II. 105. Mr. Gladstone’s argument for converting Homer into a veridical historian.
2. spec. in Psychol. Of hallucinations, phantasms, etc.: Coincident with, corresponding to, or representing real events or persons.
1884. F. W. H. Myers, in Proc. Soc. Psychical Research, April, 48. The truth-telling, or, as we may call them, veridical hallucinations which do, in fact, coincide with some crisis in the life of the person whose image is seen.
1898. Athenæum, 25 June, 824/1. The vision of the lady … is certainly spoken of … as if it had been ‘veridical.’
Hence Veridicality, Veridically adv., † Veridicalness.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Veridicalness, Truth-speaking, or the Quality or Faculty of speaking Truth.
1836. Johnsoniana, 264. Pope draws human characters the most veridically, of any poetic delineator.
a. 1901. F. W. H. Myers, Human Personality (1903), I. p. xliii. The only valid evidence … for veridicality depends on a coincidence with some external event.
