Etymograph

English

trust

Trust comes from Middle English trust ‘trust, protection’.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trust1‘trust’
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599trust1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English trust
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “Trust me, you looke well.”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trustWiktionary, English trust‘trust’
  2. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1599trustWiktionary, English trust. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.: “Trust me, you looke well.”

The story

Long considered a borrowing from Old Norse traust (‘confidence, help, protection’), from Proto-Germanic *traustą, but the root vocalism is incompatible, so trust has come to be considered a reflex of an unattested Old English *trust, from a rare zero-grade Proto-Germanic variant of the same root also attested in Middle High German getrüste (‘host’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *traustą

tryst

Today it means

noun Confidence in or reliance on some person or quality.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “trust”. 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 / Middle English trust / trust

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