a. (and adv.). Also 5 veritabill, 6 verytable. [a. OF. and AF. veritable (mod.F. véritable, = It. veritevole), f. verite VERITY: see -ABLE.
App. the word had become obsolete by the middle of the 17th century, and was revived early in the 19th. Webster (1828–32) notes it as ‘little used.’]
1. Of a statement, etc.: That is in accordance or conformity with the truth or verity; true. ? Obs.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, II. i. (1883), 21. Therfore hym ought to saye no thynge but yf hit were veritable and stable.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), IV. 1068. We shall here tidinges … shortlye; For that is suth veritabill.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshman (Percy), 20. In good fayth thy tale is verytable, Grounded in lernynge, and gretly commendable.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iv. 76. Des. Indeed! is’t true? Oth. Most veritable, therefore looke too ’t well.
1649. Evelyn, Liberty & Servitude, iv. Misc. Writ. (1825), 21. It was not lesse lawfull to men who comprehended thoughts worthy and veritable, such as we might have of things divine, to possesse an heart elevated and a courage invincible.
† b. Of persons: Speaking the truth; truthful, veracious. Obs.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. vii. 11. The maners and condicions whiche belongen to a good conestable ben these, that he be not testyf … ne angry, But amesured and attemporat,… verytable in worde and promesse hardy.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), E vij b. The greatest faute … is to spare the trouthe and not to be verytable.
1594. R. Ashley, trans. Loys le Roy, 46. The second warned him to bee all his life true, and veritable.
2. Genuine, real, true; not counterfeit, false or spurious; correctly or properly so called.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 19/1. And to thende to preve that his deth was veritable he wold lye therin thre dayes.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., V. xix. 262. But where the real works of Nature, or veritable acts of story are to be described, digressions are aberrations.
1830. J. G. Strutt, Sylva Brit., 24. Few persons … form anything like just estimates of the veritable size of trees.
1855. Miss Cobbe, Intuit. Mor., I. 73. Then Intuition must be given its natural position as the basis of the only veritable System of Ethics.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 8. A moral relish for veritable proofs of honesty.
b. Of things or persons.
1649. Earl Monm., trans. Senault’s Use Passions, 9. The same Philosophers … imagined it [the soul] had parts as well as the body, and though they were more subtle, they were not less veritable.
1833. Lamb, Elia, II. Imaginative Faculty in Productions Mod. Art. He had painted a laudable orchard, with fitting seclusion, and a veritable dragon.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, II. xxiii. 249. A veritable personage was Whittington.
1881. Lit. World, 21 Jan., 37/1. Nelson, we all know, was a veritable sea king.
c. With the, in emphatic use.
1831. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), II. xiv. 320. A cast of the skull of Raphael—the veritable skull dug up at Rome.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. ix. 94. Next, sugar; what complex memories the word brings back!—the veritable sugar has been long ago defunct.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, i. 150. I who am now talking … am the veritable Socrates.
3. In extended use, denoting possession of all the distinctive qualities of the person or thing specified.
1862. C. Stretton, Chequered Life, I. 24. I tell you that Charley is a veritable eel.
1869. Annie Harwood, trans. E. De Pressensé’s Early Years Chr., III. i. 360. They [the Jews] had a succession of governors who were veritable brigands.
1897. Standard, 2 Feb., 7/5. At Rochefort there was … a veritable hail of tiles, slates, etc. blown off the roofs.
† 4. As adv. Veritably, truly. Obs.–1
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xxvi. 93. I beleue veritable that it is for to take vengeaunce of the feyth & of the grete othe … whiche I haue violated falsly.
Hence Veritableness, truth, veracity. rare–1.
1664. J. Newburgh, in Evelyn, Pomona, etc., 44. I am so well assured of the veritableness of my neighbours relation, that I dare not question it.
