different between veritable vs actually

English

Etymology

From Middle French veritable, from Old French veritable, from Latin veritabilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?.??.t?.bl/

Adjective

veritable (comparative more veritable, superlative most veritable)

1. True; genuine.

   • Life in the Middle Ages was a colossal religious game. The dominant value was salvation in a life hereafter. Emphasizing that "to divorce medieval hysteria from its time and place is not possible," Gallinek observes: It was the aim of man to leave all things worldly as far behind as possible, and already during lifetime to approach the kingdom of heaven. The aim was salvation. Salvation was the Christian master motive.—The ideal man of the Middle Ages was free of all fear because he was sure of salvation, certain of eternal bliss. He was the saint, and the saint, not the knight nor the troubadour, is the veritable ideal of the Middle Ages.

   He is a veritable genius.

   A fair is a veritable smorgasbord. (From Charlotte's Web).

Related terms

Anagrams

• avertible, rivetable

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin veritabilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /v?.?i?ta.bl?/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /b?.?i?ta.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ve.?i?ta.ble/

Adjective

veritable (masculine and feminine plural veritables)

1. real; true; veritable

   Synonyms: vertader, autèntic, real, legítim

Derived terms

• veritablement

Further reading

• “veritable” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “veritable” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “veritable” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “veritable” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French veritable.

Adjective

veritable m or f (plural veritables)

1. true; real; not fake

Descendants

• ? English: veritable
• French: véritable

Old French

Etymology

From Latin veritabilis.

Adjective

veritable m (oblique and nominative feminine singular veritable)

1. true; real; not fake

Descendants

• Middle French: veritable
  • ? English: veritable
  • French: véritable

English

Etymology

From Middle English actualy, actuelly, equivalent to actual +? -ly.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ak.(t)??.?.li/, /?ak.(t)??li/, /?ak.(t)??.li/, /?ak.(t)?li/
  • (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /?ak.(t)??.?.l?/, /?ak.tj?.?.l?/
  • (UK, nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?at?.u.li/, /?at?.?.li/, /?at?.li/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?æk.(t)?u.(?.)li/, /?æk.(t)?u.li/, /?æk.(t)??.li/, /?æk.(t)?li/

Adverb

actually (not comparable)

1. (modal) In act or in fact; really; in truth; positively.

2. (obsolete) Actively.

   • Neither actually […] nor passively.

Usage notes

• In other European languages, cognates of actually mean "now" or "currently"; (e.g., Portuguese "atualmente", Spanish "actualmente", French "actuellement", German "aktuell", Italian "attualmente", Czech "aktuáln?"), making it a false friend. This leads many non-native speakers of English to use "actually" when they mean "now" or "currently".
• Some commentators have:
  1. remarked upon the irony that this qualifier of veracity often introduces an utter lie; and,
  2. noted that in many cases, actually functions as little more than a vacuous emphatic utterance.
• In practice, actually and its synonyms are often used to insinuate that the following is either unusual or contrary to a norm or preceding assumption, or to merely preface an overconfident opinion contrasting a previous statement or norm (as per 'vacuous emphasis' note above).

This is actually a really beautiful song. (contrasting opinion)

Actually, I'm not from France – I'm from Switzerland. (contrary from assumption)

At the check-out, the cashier actually greeted me for once. (contrary from norm)

Alternative forms

• actially (nonstandard)
• ackshually, ackshully, akshully, ackshly, akshly (eye dialect)

Synonyms

• (in act or in fact): as a matter of fact, in reality, literally, really, truthfully; see also Thesaurus:actually

Translations

References

Middle English

Adverb

actually

1. Alternative form of actualy

Scots

Adverb

actually

1. actually

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.