Etymograph

English

betroth

Betroth comes from Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō ‘contract’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dóru ‘tree’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dóru1‘tree’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*triwwiþō1‘contract’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150trīewþ1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bitrouthen1
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1566betroth1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English betroth
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1566, Euripides, Iocasta: A Tragedie Written in Greke by Euripides, […]: “To priuate fight they haue betroutht themſelues, / Of…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dóruWiktionary, English betroth‘tree’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*triwwiþōWiktionary, English betroth‘contract’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150trīewþWiktionary, English betroth
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bitrouthenWiktionary, English betroth
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1566betrothWiktionary, English betroth. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1566, Euripides, Iocasta: A Tragedie Written in Greke by Euripides, […]: “To priuate fight they haue betroutht themſelues, / Of…”

The story

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’)).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dóru ‘tree’

tree, dory, trough, druid, dinghy, dendritic, larch, dendrite, 4 more

through Proto-Germanic *triwwiþō ‘contract’

truth, 1 more

Today it means

verb Of a man: to promise to take (a woman) as a future spouse; to plight one's troth to.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “betroth”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dóru / betroth

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