different between testify vs verity

English

Etymology

From Middle English testifien, borrowed from Old French testifier, from Latin testific?r?, present active infinitive of testificor (“I bear witness”), from testis (“a witness”) + facere (“to make”). See -fy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?st?fa?/
• Hyphenation: tes?ti?fy
• Rhymes: -a?

Verb

testify (third-person singular simple present testifies, present participle testifying, simple past and past participle testified) (transitive, intransitive)

1. To make a declaration, or give evidence, under oath.
   • 2014, Ruzwana Bashir, "The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim", The Guardian, 29 August 2014:

     It was only after a decade away from Skipton that I was finally able to garner the courage to return and testify against my abuser.

   • One witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.

2. To make a statement based on personal knowledge or faith.

   • We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

Synonyms

• bear witness

Related terms

• attest
• testimony
• testimonial

Translations

See also

• compel testimony

Further reading

• testify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• testify in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

From Middle English verite, from Anglo-Norman verité or Middle French verité, from Old French verité, from Latin v?rit?s, from the adjective v?rus (“true”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v???ti/

Noun

verity (countable and uncountable, plural verities)

1. Truth, fact or reality, especially an enduring religious or ethical truth; veracity.
   • 1602 : William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V scene 2

     [...] but in the verity of extolment

     I take him to be a soul of great article and his infusion

     of such dearth and rareness as, to make true diction of

     him, his semblable in his mirror, and who else would

     trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.3:

     For the assured truth of things is derived from the principles of knowledg, and causes which determine their verities.
2. A true statement; an established doctrine.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 290-1:

     Absolutist verities were not only being challenged in more systematic and more daring forms than hitherto; the parameters of political debate were also being widened by both government and its critics.

Related terms