vouchsafe

English

WOTD – 10 November 2007

Etymology

From vouch +‎ safe, written as two words in Middle English and early Modern English.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˌvaʊt͡ʃˈseɪf/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˌvʌʊtʃˈseɪf]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪf
• Hyphenation: vouch‧safe

Verb

vouchsafe (third-person singular simple present vouchsafes, present participle vouchsafing, simple past and past participle vouchsafed)

1. To graciously give, to condescendingly grant a right, benefit, outcome, etc.; to deign to acknowledge.

   Synonym: (archaic) vouch

   • 1599?, William Shakespeare, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene i, page 119:

     If Brutus will vouchſafe that Antony / May ſafely come to him ...

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Shake-speares sonnets: Neuer before Imprinted‎^[1], London: G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe], and are to be solde by William Aspley, →OCLC, sonnet 135:

     Wilt thou, whoſe will is large and ſpacious, / Not once vouchſafe to hide my will in thine?

   • 1964 July, “The mythology of monorails”, in Modern Railways, page 57:

     Needless to say, we have been vouchsafed no idea of what this might cost the innocent victims, the ratepayers.

2. To receive or accept in condescension.
   • 1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 8, in Pollyanna‎^[2], L.C. Page, →OCLC:

     Nancy's lips parted abruptly, as if there were angry words all ready to come; but her eyes, resting on Pollyanna's jubilantly trustful face, saw something that prevented the words being spoken.
     "Humph!" she vouchsafed. Then, showing her old-time interest, she went on: "But, say, it is queer, his speakin' to you, honestly, Miss Pollyanna. He don't speak ter no one; and he lives all alone in a great big lovely house all full of jest grand things, they say. Some says he's crazy, and some jest cross; and some says he's got a skeleton in his closet."

3. To disclose or divulge.

   She vouchsafed to me that she regretted ever marrying him.

   • 1879, F. D. Morice, Pindar, chapter 8, page 129:

     His predictions were at first to be guided by direct intimations vouchsafed to him by the god; […]

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:vouchsafe.

Synonyms

• deign

Related terms

• vouchsafement
• vouchsafing

Translations

Condescendingly grant a right

• Bulgarian: благоволявам (blagovoljavam)
• Dutch: genadig toestaan
• French: accorder de manière clémente
• Georgian: ბოძება (boʒeba), მიცემა (micema), აღიარება (aɣiareba)
• German: gewähren (de)
• Greek: αξιώνω (el) (axióno)
• Polish: zaszczycać impf, zaszczycić pf
• Portuguese: permitir (pt)
• Russian: удоста́ивать (ru) impf (udostáivatʹ),удосто́ить (ru) pf (udostóitʹ), соизво́лить (ru) pf (soizvólitʹ) + verb (give,grant,etc.)
• Turkish: bahşetmek (tr), ihsan etmek, lütfetmek (tr)

References

• “vouchsafe”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.