# "Sooth:" noun, adverb, adjective? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472 "2013-03-20T17:51:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/1 "2013-03-20T17:51:26Z")
We speak it, occasionally. Online dictionaries here and there give all three. Anyone have an OED handy? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/2 "2013-03-20T18:04:25Z")
I tend to only think of it as a noun, basically. When it’s the direct object of a transitive verb, it can function as an adverbial phrase. The _American Heritage Dictionary_ also says it’s an adjective, but didn’t give any examples. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/3 "2013-03-20T18:13:54Z")
Yeah, I agree with Johanna - wouldn’t it be a noun? It’s basically equivalent to ‘truth’ in just about every phrase I can think of. ‘In sooth, he doth blah blah blah’; ‘Thou dost say sooth’… ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/4 "2013-03-20T18:47:45Z")
I’m having a hard time figuring out how an adjective can be the object of a preposition. Perhaps I’m just being dense; if there are common examples please disabuse me! I think of “forsooth” or the phrase “for sooth” being adverbial. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/5 "2013-03-21T01:18:27Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > We speak it, occasionally. > > Online dictionaries here and there give all three. Anyone have an OED handy? I do. The OED says it’s a noun (meaning “truth”) with cites from c. 950; an adjective (meaning “true”) with cites from c. 888; and an adverb (meaning “truly”) with cites from Old English and from c.1000. In all three parts of speech it is archaic; as an adverb it is also rare. It disappeared from the language in the mid-seventeenth century, before being revived in the nineteenth century as a conscious literary archaism, and Scott gets the blame for the revival. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/6 "2013-03-21T01:38:25Z")
Thanks. Any chance you could do a ctrl-c ctrl-v here on the cites? ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sooth-noun-adverb-adjective/653472/7 "2013-03-21T03:53:43Z")
I’ll jump in with those cites. Noun: > [@](#): > > c950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt., Int. 1/13 Gif..soð [L. veritas] is to soeccenna of monigum. Adjective: > [@](#): > > 1. True, veritable, real, genuine: > a. Of things or qualities. Obs. > c888 Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. vii. §3 Ælc soþ wela and soþ weorþscipe sindan mine agne þeowas. Adverb: > [@](#): > > a. Truly; truthfully; in truth. > OE Beowulf 524 Beot eal wið þe sunu Beanstanes soðe gelæste. > c1000 Ags. Ps. (1835) cxviii. 15 Swa ic þine soðfæstnysse soðe getreowe.