betroth
/bəˈtɹoʊð/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.53 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one's troth to.
Archaic; Formal; Transitive verb
verb
Often of a parent or guardian: to promise that (two people) be married to each other; specifically and chiefly, to promise that (a woman) be given in marriage to a man; to affiance.
Archaic; Formal; Transitive verb
verb
Of God: to enter into a relationship with (believers, or the church as a whole); also, of a priest: to pledge (himself) to the church prior to being consecrated as a bishop.
Archaic; Formal; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him goe and returne vnto his houſe, leſt he die in battel, and another man take her."
- "He betrothed his daughter to a distant relative."
- "The couple were betrothed not long after they met each other."
- "You to remoue that ſiege of griefe from her [Juliet] / Betrothd and vvould haue married her perforce / To Countie Paris."
- "To me, O Bacchus thou betrothedſt Heaven: / Ah me! for heaven vvhat dovvries here are given!"
- "VVherefore let Chriſtiana look out ſome Damſels for her Sons, to vvhom they may be Betroathed, &c. that the Name of their Father, and the Houſe of his Progenitors may never be forgotten in the VVorld."
Etymology
From Middle English bitrouthen, bitreuthen (“of a man: to pledge to marry; to give (a woman) in marriage, arrange the marriage of”), from bi- (prefix forming transitive verbs from nouns) + trouth, treuthe (“faithfulness, fidelity, specifically marital fidelity; promise, undertaking, specifically a promise of marriage; truth; etc.”) (from Old English trīewþ, trēowþ (“fidelity; good faith, honour; assurance of good faith, covenant, troth; truth”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō (“contract; promise”), from Proto-Indo-European *dóru (“tree; hence, firm, hard; faithful, true”)), possibly modelled after Old English trēowsian (“to pledge oneself; to prove oneself to be true”)). By surface analysis, be- + troth.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: bitrouthen, trīewþ, *triwwiþō, *dóru
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bəˈtɹoʊð/
- British English: /bɪˈtɹəʊð/
Usage
Inflected Forms
betroths (present, singular)
betrothing (participle, present)
betrothed (past)
betrothed (participle, past)
betrothen (participle, past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
betrothed (first person, past)
betrothest (archaic, present)
betrothed (past, second person)
betrothedst (archaic, past)
betrothes (present, singular)