Douteles

Part of speech: adverb, adjective

Definitions

1. Free from any uncertainty or hesitation about something ; certainly and without any question
2. Completely certain and unhesitating about a matter ; in a way that leaves no room for question or argument
3. Having no misgivings about the truth of something ; surely and undeniably, as a matter of course

Etymology: Middle English "douteles" is a plain compound: "doute" (doubt, from Old French "doute", ultimately from Latin "dubitare", "to waver between two things") plus the suffix "-les", meaning "without", as in "careless" or "endless". So the word literally means "without doubt." The "doute" element is itself a dramatic example of how a word can wander: Latin "dubitare" is built from "duo", two, so doubt originally meant being pulled between two options. Medieval English writers used "douteles" in the sense of "certain" or "undoubted," and it fell out of use as "doubtless" took over. Its survival in the modern form "doubtless" shows the same suffix-meaning doing its job, with "-less" retained in the spelling of the later form.