Sunday Word: Forsooth

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forsooth [fawr-sooth]

adverb:
(archaic) in truth, indeed (now used in derision or to express disbelief

Examples:

Forsooth, the winter of our discontent has been made glorious summer by the Salzburg Festival. (A J Goldmann, After a Winter of Discontent, a Glorious Summer in Salzburg, The New York Times, July 2021)

And the lowly scribes say, forsooth
you are talking bunkum and hocus pocus. (An Ode for - and from - Sandra Goudie , newsroom, October 2021)

'Moral duty to chase' forsooth! 'Won’t someone think of the kiddies who came to watch' indeed! (Said no one, ever.) ( Tim de Lisle and Rob Smyth, England draw first Test with New Zealand: day five - as it happened, The Guardian, June 2021)

I am not to see, forsooth, that no man does me an injury, or breaks into my home--I am not to take care that all shall go well with me, or that I have clothes to wear, or that my shoes do not require mending, or that I be given work to do, or that I possess sufficient meat and drink? (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Poor Folk)

Origin:

Old English forsoð 'indeed, in truth, verily,' from for-, perhaps here with intensive force (or else the whole might be 'for a truth'), + soð 'truth' (see sooth). Regarded as affected in speech by c 1600. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Although it is still a part of the English language, forsooth is now primarily used in humorous or ironic contexts, or in a manner intended to play off the word's archaic vibe. Forsooth is formed from the combination of the preposition for and the noun sooth. Sooth survives as both a noun (meaning 'truth' or 'reality') and an adjective (meaning 'true', 'sweet', or 'soft'), though it is rarely used by contemporary speakers. It primarily lives on in English in the verb soothe (which originally meant 'to show, assert, or confirm the truth of') and in the noun soothsayer (that is, 'truthsayer'), a name for someone who can predict the future. (Merriam-Webster)