oath

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English ooth, oth, ath, from Old English āþ (“oath”), from Proto-West Germanic *aiþ (“oath”), from Proto-Germanic *aiþaz (“oath”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óytos (“oath”). Cognate with Scots aith, athe (“oath”), North Frisian ith, iss (“oath”), Saterland Frisian Eed (“oath”), West Frisian eed (“oath”), Dutch eed (“oath”), German Eid (“oath”), Swedish ed (“oath”), Icelandic eið (“oath”), Latin ūtor (“make use of, employ, avail”, verb), Old Irish óeth (“oath”).

Pronunciation

Noun

oath (plural oaths)

  1. A solemn pledge or promise that invokes a deity, a ruler, or another entity (not necessarily present) to attest the truth of a statement or sincerity of one's desire to fulfill a contract or promise.
    take an oath
    swear an oath
    break one's oath
    • 2007, George Simmons Roth, Battle in Outer Space, →ISBN:
      But all of us took an oath to do our duty when we joined the Space Force, and I fully expect everyone to willingly keep their word. But you took no oath, and have no obligation.
    • 2011, Mark Leyne, The Tetherballs of Bougainville: A Novel‎:
      There are […] brought all the way from Bougainville to present their birth certificates and testify in this courtroom, under oath, as to their given names.
  2. A statement or promise which is strengthened (affirmed) by such a pledge.
    After taking the oath of office, she became the country's forty-third premier.
    The generals swore an oath of loyalty to the country.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1:
      Wrex: [sigh] Before I left, I made an oath to my father's father.
      Wrex: I swore to recover my family's battle armor. It was taken from him after the uprising.
  3. A light, irreverent or insulting appeal to a deity or other entity.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  4. A curse, a curse word.
    • 1981, Bernard Asbell, The Senate Nobody Knows:
      The farther from the Senator's office, the darker and older the furniture, the freer fly four-letter oaths, the higher the heaps of unfiled and unattended papers culminating in a frenzy of pulp in the press section […]

Synonyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

curse — see curse
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

oath (third-person singular simple present oaths, present participle oathing, simple past and past participle oathed)

  1. (archaic) To pledge.

Translations

Further reading

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