The Latin root word ver means “truth” or “true.” Today we’ll take a very or “truly” close look at this Latin root—that’s the “truth!”
When a jury gives a verdict in a court case, it says what it thinks is the “truth” about the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Sometimes that verdict is very hard to verify, or make “true” beyond the shadow of a doubt. Even with seemingly overwhelming evidence, a court case may ultimately be unverifiable, or cannot be made “true,” simply because all the facts may not have been brought to light. It’s no wonder that people will often contest the veracity or “truthfulness” of court proceedings, especially when one hears of those poor victims who spent many decades of their lives in prison when they were, in fact, innocent the entire time!
The English word “very” functions as both an adverb and an adjective. When used as an adverb, such as very good or very clean, you mean that something is “truly” good or “truly” clean. The word very can also be used as an adjective. Imagine a knight saying to his squire, “Why, that’s the very sword I lost in my last battle!” In this case, the knight means that it’s the “true” or actual sword that he lost, not one that just looks like it.
The root word ver is the basis of many words that have something to do with “truth” in the Romance languages as well. For instance, the Spanish word for “truth” is verdad, French for “truth” is verite, the Italian is verita, and the Portuguese is verdade. As you can see, the root word ver is “truly” handy not only in English, but in many other languages as well.
I hope that you have “truly” enjoyed this podcast about the root word ver very much indeed!
- verdict: ‘true’ saying, or ‘truth’ said by a jury
- verify: to make sure something is ‘true’
- unverifiable: of that which cannot be made certain that it is ‘true’
- veracity: ‘truthfulness’
- very: ‘truly’ (adv.)
- very: ‘true’ (adj.)
- verdad: Spanish word for ‘truth’
- verite: French word for ‘truth’
- verita: Italian word for ‘truth’
- verdade: Portuguese word for ‘truth’