faith
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /feɪθ/
rhymes: -eɪθ
Forms: form: faiths
form: feith
form: feithe
form: fayth
form: faythe
form: faithe
Etymology: From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for "belief."
Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g. truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a recharacterisation of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.
Senses: examples: text: The faithfulness of Old Faithful gives us faith in it.
text: I have faith in the goodness of my fellow man.
text: Have faith in him, buddy.
text: You need to have faith in yourself, that you can overcome your shortcomings and become a good person.
text: For we are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and union, and in our own Union. We believe that every man must someday be free. And we believe in ourselves.
That is the mistake that our enemies have always made. In my lifetime--in depression and in war--they have awaited our defeat. Each time, from the secret places of the American heart, came forth the faith they could not see or that they could not even imagine. It brought us victory. And it will again.
ref: 1965, 18:00 from the start, in Lyndon B. Johnson inaugural address: January 20, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson (actor), CBS News:
text: […]with a mentality anchored in a profoundly influential and persistent hostility to central features of the Enlightment faith in the theoretical and practical autonomy of the human subject.
ref: 1999, Nicholas Walker, “The Reorientation of Critical Theory: Habermas”, in Simon Glemdinning, editor, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Continental Philosophy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 489:
glosses: A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
examples: text: I have faith that my prayers will be answered.
text: I have faith in the healing power of crystals.
text: Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 17:19–20:
text: We have but faith: we cannot know;
⁠For knowledge is of things we see
⁠And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Prologue”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
examples: text: The Christian faith.
text: We seek justice for the Indo-European Folk Faith; what's wrong in our literature for that?
text: Gradually I realized that I needed a faith to rely on.
ref: 2020 March 27, “Dafa Taught Me How to Be a Good Person”, in Minghui:
glosses: A religious or spiritual belief system.
examples: text: He acted in good faith to restore broken diplomatic ties after defeating the incumbent.
glosses: An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.
examples: 1784-1810, William Mitford, History of Greece
the faith of the foregoing […] narrative
glosses: Credibility or truth.
Synonyms: sense: knowing, without direct observation, based on indirect evidence and experience, that something is true, real, or will happen
word: belief
sense: knowing, without direct observation, based on indirect evidence and experience, that something is true, real, or will happen
word: confidence
sense: knowing, without direct observation, based on indirect evidence and experience, that something is true, real, or will happen
word: trust
sense: knowing, without direct observation, based on indirect evidence and experience, that something is true, real, or will happen
word: conviction
topics: religion
lifestyle
word: system of religious belief
Derived terms: act of faith
antifaith
article of faith
Attic faith
bad faith
blind faith
by my faith
cupboard faith
faith and begorra
faith-based
faithbreach
faithbreaker
faith can move mountains
faith-cure
faithectomy
faithed
faitheism
faitheist
faithful
faithfully
faithfulness
faithhead
faith-healer
faith healer
faith healing
faithing
faithism
faithist
faithless
faith-lift
faithly
faith supper
faith will move mountains
faithwise
faithworthy
faithy
full faith and credit
good faith
i' faith
in faith
interfaith
intrafaith
keep faith
keep the faith
leap of faith
misfaith
multi-faith
multifaith
nonfaith
oh me of little faith
oh ye of little faith
O me of little faith
O ye of little faith
profession of faith
Punic faith
punic faith
seed-faith
take on faith
unfaith
word of faith
ye of little faith
Related terms: affidavit
bide
fidelity