WORD HISTORY: Soothsayer

The truth is not always soothing, but our verb soothe is related to soothsayer, the word for one who tells the truth, especially beforehand. The archaic adjective and noun sooth, "true, truth," comes from the Old English adjective and noun soth with the same meanings. The Old English form derives from Germanic *santh-az, "true," which comes from Indo-European *sont-, one of the participles from the Indo-European root -es-, "to be": the truth is that which is. Old English also formed a verb from soth, namely sothian, "to confirm to be true." This is the ancestor of soothe; its meaning changed from "to assent to be true, say 'yes' to" to "humor by assenting, placate." Doing the latter on occasion requires something less than the truth.