Forms: 5 varyte, Sc. weryte, 5–6 verite, Sc. veryte, 6 veritee, Sc. varite; 5–6 Sc. veretie, 6 veritye, verytie, ueritie, Sc. werietie, weratie, 6–7 veritie, Sc. verritie, 7– verity. [a. AF. and OF. verite, veritet (mod.F. vérité, = It. verità, Prov. veritat, vertat, verdad, Sp. verdad, Pg. verdade):—L. vēritāt-, vēritās, f. vēr-us true, VERY a.: see -ITY.
App. not in common use in the 18th cent., but revived in the 19th.]
1. Without article. Truth, either in general or with reference to a particular fact; conformity to fact or reality. Also personif.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, i. (Peter), 254. Bot-gyf þat pece be and concorde, to fynd veryte In-to na thing may be profyte.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 161. Verite getyth hatredyn. Ibid. Verite [is] caste doune, whan any vnryghtly thynge is preferrid to trouthe.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 1406. And verite war seyn, That ye me luffyt, I awcht yow luff agayn.
1540–1. Elyot, Image Gov., 87. Than demaunded he of hym, what thyng he professed. He aunswered: Veritee.
1579. W. Fulke, Confut. Sanders, 577. Betweene veritie & falsitie there is no meane.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. III. iii. 58. Mirth, and Free-mindednesse, Simplicitie,… These be the lovely play-mates of pure veritie.
1653. Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 66. Historical verity, saith he, shews the sepulkers of their false Gods here on earth.
1698. G. Thomas, Pensilvania, 30. I … have all along, and shall still declare nothing but Verity.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxiii. He is a prelatist…, and all, and more than all, that has been said of him must needs be verity.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, II. vi. (1872), 137. A little verdant flowery island of poetic intellect, of melodious human verity.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., v. § 2. 325. The hypothesis of Catholic verity does not attempt to solve the problem.
Comb. 1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), I. 191. A motive of any description may be termed a veracity or verity-promoting, or mendacity-restraining, motive.
b. In various prepositional phrases and constructions used adverbially, freq. with emphatic force, as in († of) verity.
14[?]. Sir Beues (S.), 4313 + 127. Foure þousand men, pur varyte, þey brouȝten with hem to Lundone cyte.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, 39. Hir cleyne virginite wes [w]vnderlie and in verite prouine be the prophetis.
a. 1557. Diurn. Occurr. (Bann. Cl.), 14. The quhilk Johne Scott fastit without meit or drink of veritie xxxij dayes.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lvii. § 5. For we take not baptism nor the eucharist for bare resemblances…, but (as they are indeed and in verity) for means effectual.
1849. G. P. R. James, Woodman, xxxiv. It is somewhat sudden in verity and truth; but he must depart for Dorset by daybreak to-morrow.
1875. Ruskin, Fors Clav., lvi. 231. In verity it was not I who fed my nurse, but my nurse me.
† c. Of verity (used predicatively): True. Sc. Obs. (Cf. 3 b.)
1549. Compl. Scot., v. 35. Bot admittand … that Socrates opinione var of verite, ȝit [etc.].
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 134. The provist ansuerit and said, ‘that is of truth and weratie, and gif’ [etc.].
c. 1593. in Spalding Club Misc., I. 5. Gif this be of ueritie I remit me to the Erlle of Angus declaratioun.
1658. in Hawick Archæol. Soc. Trans. (1868), 30/2. The which the said David Baddie hes maid faith before the baillies that it was of verritie.
2. With article or pronoun. The truth; the true or real facts or circumstances.
Freq. in the 16th c. in reference to religious belief, sometimes taking the sense of ‘the true religion or faith.’
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 161. I sey that ham lackyth men that sholde say to ham the Verite, or the trouthe.
c. 1450. Merlin, xxi. 372. Telle me what ye be, and of youre felowes telle me the verite.
c. 1480. Henryson, Fables, Sheep & Dog, x. Seikand full mony Decreitis of the Law, And Glosis als, the veritie to knaw.
1535. Coverdale, 1 John iii. 19. Hereby knowe we, that we are of the verite.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 46. King: my faith I plight heere, to relate thee veritye soothlye.
1607. J. Carpenter, Plaine Mars Plough, 22. Therefore Lactantius approacheth neerer to the veritie.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 73. The Apostles preached here the Christian veritie.
1696. in Aubrey’s Misc. (1721), 212. I have set it down fully,… being curious for nothing but the Verity.
1754. in Nairne Peerage Evidence (1874), 55. [To] grant commission for taking his oath on the verity.
b. Const. of (something).
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xi. (Percy), 39. The comon wyt … Maye well ajudge the perfyt veritie Of theyr sentence.
1535. in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden), 80. Howbeit no farder than the verity of Scripture will justifie my cause.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, I. x. 43. By which auncient Proverbes may be collected the verity of the assertion set downe.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xl. 250. The verity of his Miracles.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., II. iii. (1692), 79. We cannot … allow That a meer Belief of the Verity and Authority of the History and Doctrine of Scripture is … Faith.
1727. Swift, Further Acc. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 154. The verity of this hypothesis is justified by the symptoms.
1788. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 210. He wrote a volume denying the verity of my experiments.
1830. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I. 238. The most powerful proof of the verity of the rule.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. x. 66. I felt in all its force the brave verity of the remark of Mirabeau.
1888. Sat. Rev., 21 Jan., 83. It is a pity Mr. Ashton should not have clearly distinguished … between the veracity of the author and the verity of his book.
c. Said of God or of Christ. Usu. with defining adj. preceding.
1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), 6. The verite hath sayd it and wryten it.
1559. Homilies, I. Of Faith, II. G iij b. Chryst hymself: the eternal and infallible veritic. Ibid. (1563), Of the Resurrection, G ggg ij b. O man, cal to thy minde, that therefore hast thou receyued into thyne owne possession the euerlasting veritie, our Sauiour Jesus Christ.
1645. Vane, Lost Sheepe, 41. God being the Prime Verity.
1870. J. H. Newman, Gram. Assent, I. v. 126. We have no experiences in our memory which we can … transmute into an Image of the Ineffable Verity.
† d. The exact wording and meaning of the original Hebrew or Greek text of the Bible. Obs.
1535. Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), 45. But yet let Tindale loke ouer his Testament once agene and conferre yt a lytle beter withe the verite and greke to [= too].
1539. Bible (Great), title, The Byble in Englyshe, truly translated after the veryte of the Hebrue and Greke textes.
1627. W. Bedell, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 136. For the translation sake (being not in the Vulgar, but according to the Hebrew verity).
1659. Bp. Walton, Consid. Considered, 91. The greatest assertors of the Hebrew verity.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., Pref. B 2 b. When they quote the Scripture wrong…, the authority of the Greek and Hebrew verity should be cast in their teeth.
e. The actuality or reality of something.
a. 1633. Austin, Medit. (1635), 176. He [Christ] offered also his Hands, to the other Disciples,… to proove … the veritie of his humane Body.
1686. W. Hopkins, Ratramnus’ Body & Bl., Dissert. v. (1688), 75. Concerning the Verity of Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
1913. Act 3 & 4 Geo. V., c. 20 § 21. Such oath … shall be taken by him to the verity of the debt.
3. With a and pl. A true statement, doctrine or opinion; an established fact, a reality; a truth.
1533. Frith, Answ. More (1548), 42. There are many verities, which yet may be no such artycles of our faithe.
1577. Harrison, England, II. vii., in Holinshed, I. 80/2. Sith coniecturs are no verities & mine opinion is but one mans iudgement.
1605. Camden, Rem. (1623), 221. Magicke, in the time of Nero, was discouered to be but a vanity, in the declining state of the Roman Empire, accounted by the Gentiles a verity.
1649. Bulwer, Pathomyot., II. i. 60. A great Anatomist, whom I find running away with an errour instead of a conceited verity.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. vii. § 11. Which [propositions] being settled in the minds of their scholars, as unquestionable verities.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xxxiv. But it is an indubitable verity, continued I, addressing myself to the commissary.
1845. Bailey, Festus (ed. 2), 122. Thus dreams are verities.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. App. 643. The quarrel and the reconciliation are unquestionable verities.
1878. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., vii. § 203. 202. Our strength lies in keeping up a communication with those verities which we all acknowledge.
b. Of a verity (chiefly in parenthetic use): Truly, assuredly, in truth, indeed. (Cf. 1 b.) rhet.
1850. W. Irving, Mahomet, vi. (1853), 33. Oh Mahomet, of a verity, thou art the prophet of God!
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. i. 15. The liver of a walrus eaten with little slices of his fat;… of a verity it is a delicious morsel.
1860. Sala, Baddington Peerage, I. xv. 271. Down she came, in about ten minutes, looking of a verity, radiant.
4. Truthfulness, veracity, sincerity. ? Obs.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 51. Justice, verity, holiness, fear of God.
1565. T. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 14 b. Thou hast sworen to Dauid in thy verite.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. iii. 92. The King-becoming Graces, As Iustice, Verity, Temp’rance, Stablenesse.
1606. Bryskett, Civ. Life, 242. Veritie is the vertue … by which a man in all his conuersation, in all his actions, and in al his words sheweth himselfe sincere and ful of truth.
1808. E. S. Barrett, Miss-led General, 47. If my verity is called in question, I will state in what manner, and by what means it was paid.
1848. Scottish Jrnl. Topog., etc. II. 167/1. Scoto-Gallicisms…. On my veritie, [from French] vérité. My certie, [from French] certes.
