English
trust
Trust comes from Middle English trust ‘trust, protection’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trust‘trust’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599trust
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trust‘trust’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599trust
Earliest quotation: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “Trust me, you looke well.”
The story
Long considered a borrowing from Old Norse traust (‘confidence, help, protection’), from Proto-Germanic *traustą, but the root vocalism is incompatible, so trust has come to be considered a reflex of an unattested Old English *trust, from a rare zero-grade Proto-Germanic variant of the same root also attested in Middle High German getrüste (‘host’).
Linked words
through Proto-Germanic *traustą
Today it means
noun Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English trust / trust