Trewe

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic spelling of the adjective true, meaning genuine, accurate, or faithful to what is real or promised
2. Old form of the word true, used to describe something that is accurate, authentic, or loyal to a commitment
3. A historical spelling of true, applied to whatever is factual, sincere, or steadfast in its allegiance

Etymology: "Trewe" is the Middle English form of "true," and it carried a sense that modern readers might not expect. In Chaucer's time it could mean "faithful" or "loyal" as readily as "accurate," so a true friend and a true statement were close cousins. The modern sense of "faithful to facts" grew out of that loyalty idea: a thing that could be relied on to hold to what was real. The word descends from Old English "trēowe," which meant "faithful" or "steadfast" and was closely tied to "trēow," meaning "good faith" or "troth." Its deeper roots lie in a Germanic base connected to the idea of trust, and the same family gave German "treu," meaning "faithful," and Dutch "trouw." Because the Old English vowel changed over centuries, the spelling "trewe" shows up in Middle English texts before the "u" sound was regularized into "true" in later periods.