true
Definitions
General English
- adjective correct according to facts or reality
General Science
- adjective having the logical condition representing binary one.
Aviation
- adjective referring to a calculation or reading which has been corrected for errors
Cars & Driving
- adjective accurately made or correctly adjusted
Computing
- adjective used to describe a logical condition representing a non-zero value.
Information & Library Science
- adjective based on provable facts
Origin & History of “true”
The underlying etymological meaning of true is ‘faithful, steadfast, firm’; ‘in accordance with the facts’ is a secondary development. It goes back to the prehistoric Germanic base *treww-, which also produced German treue and Dutch trouw ‘faithful’ and the English noun truce, and it has been speculated that it may ultimately have links with the Indo-European base *dru- ‘wood, tree’ (source of English tree), the semantic link being the firmness or steadfastness of oaks and suchlike trees. Truth (OE) comes from the same source, as do its derivative betroth (14th c.), its now archaic variant troth (16th c.), the equally dated trow (OE), and probably also trust and tryst.
