(so͞othˈsāˌər)
noun One who claims to be able to foretell events or predict the future; a seer.
Word History: The truth is not always soothing, but our verb
soothe is related to
soothsayer, the word for one who tells the truth, especially beforehand. The archaic adjective and noun
sooth, “true, truth,” comes from the Old English adjective and noun
sōth with the same meanings. The Old English form derives from Germanic
*santh-az, “true,” which comes from Indo-European
*sont-, one of the participles from the Indo-European root
-es-, “to be”: the truth is that which is. Old English also formed a verb from
sōth, namely
sōthian, “to confirm to be true.” This is the ancestor of
soothe; its meaning changed from “to assent to be true, say ‘yes’ to” to “humor by assenting, placate.” Doing the latter on occasion requires something less than the truth.
