faith

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Strong belief or trust in someone or something.

   I have faith that everything will work out in the end.

2. 2
   noun

   Belief in a god or in a religion.

   They lost their faith but not their morality.

3. 3
   noun

   A particular religion or system of religious belief.

   People of many different faiths live in the city.

4. 4
   noun

   Loyalty to a person, cause, or promise.

   He acted in good faith to keep his word.

From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief. * Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g., truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a rech…

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