faith
/feɪθ/ noun, proper noun
Forms faiths feith feithe fayth faythe faithe
- noun A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence. “The faithfulness of Old Faithful gives us faith in it.”
- noun A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation. “I have faith that my prayers will be answered.”
- noun (metonymic) A religious or spiritual belief system. “The Christian faith.”
- noun An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation. “He acted in good faith to restore broken diplomatic ties after defeating the incumbent.”
- noun (obsolete) Credibility or truth.
- proper noun A female given name from English.
- proper noun A surname, also used as a stage name.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Norman County, Minnesota.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Miller County, Missouri.
- proper noun A town in Rowan County, North Carolina.
- proper noun A minor city in Meade County, South Dakota.
Synonyms
belief confidence trust conviction system of religious belief religion religious belief organized religion
Etymology
From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Doublet of foy. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief.
* Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g., truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a recharacterization of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony.
- noun The assent of the mind to the statement or proposition of another, on the ground of the manifest truth of what he utters; firm and earnest belief, on probable evidence of any kind, especially in regard to important moral truth.
- interjection By my faith; in truth; verily.
Etymology [OE. feith, fayth, fay, OF. feid, feit, fei, F. foi, fr. L. fides; akin to fidere to trust, Gr. th is perhaps due to the influence of such words as truth, health, wealth. See Bid, Bide, and cf. Confide, Defy, Fealty.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “faith”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details