English
certify
Certify comes from Old French certefier ‘confirm, assure, make certain’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’root as named · steps between not traced
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400certefier‘confirm, assure, make certain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1751certify
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-‘to do’root as named · steps between not traced
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400certefier‘confirm, assure, make certain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1751certify
Earliest quotation: 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […]: “After having certified himself of her own good health,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do’
do, fact, deal, hot, fair, defense, fan, benefit, fashion, feature, mid, theme, custom, ethnic, sufficient, defence, treasury, treasure, ethical, thesis, defendant, feast, theology, aesthetic, doom, synthetic, deed, dis, atheist, ethic, tick, auditorium, auditor, atheism, demi, deem, spade, ethos, forfeit, familial, 130 more
Today it means
verb To attest to (a fact) as the truth.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- / certify