I avow not to vouch for anything I aver

Let’s see – a four letter word for state positively. Begins with av… it is aver or avow? Every time I get the clue, I have to wait until I have a cross word to find out which is the answer. What’s the difference? 

Aver is “to assert or affirm with confidence; declare in a positive or peremptory manner”. Now I can aver what aver is.

What’s avow? “To declare frankly or openly; own; acknowledge; confess; admit.

So President Clinton could at the same time avow that he had an improper physical relationship with Monica Lewinsky but aver that he never had sexual relations with her. To be honest, I would have expected the opposite definitions, so I will likely remain confused.

Why two words so similar in spelling and meaning?

Aver came to English from the Old French word averer in the 14^th century. The French got averer from Vulgar Latin (for explanation, see blog of )word adverare, which means “to prove to be true.” It is formed by combining the prefix ad- (menaning “to”) with verus (meaning “true”). 

Verus is also the root for the English word verity, which we adopted into English through the Anglo-French and Old French (verite) from Latin just before we latched on to its cousin aver. (The Modern French word vérité, replete with accents acute, means the same as our word verity: truth.)

Aver came to English from the Old French word averer in the 14^th century. The French got averer from Vulgar Latin (For an explanation of Vulgar Latin, see blog of November 3, 2010 - it's not what it sounds like.) word adverare, which means “to prove to be true.” It is formed by combining the prefix ad- (menaning “to”) with verus (meaning “true”).

Verus is also the root for the English word verity, which we adopted into English from Latin after passing it through the Anglo-French and Old French word verite. 

Avow came to English even earlier (in the 13^th century) from the Anglo-French word avouer. Those crazy Anglo-French took it from the Old French word avoer, which meant to acknowledge, recognize or accept, especially as a protector. The Old French took the word from the Latin word advocare (yes, we get the word advocate from the same word). According to etymonline.com (the avowed primary source of this blog’s etymological information) avow is a synonym to avouch, but avouch “tends to contain the more technical, legal aspect of the word”.

Now, avouch’s reference on etymonline.com (it’s arrival was in the early 13^th century from the Middle French avochier, which meant to call upon authority and came ultimately from the previously mentioned advercare)  has a quote from Fowler which says several interesting things:

Avouch, which is no longer in common use, means guarantee, solemnly aver, prove by assertion, maintain the truth or existence of, vouch for….Avow means own publicly to, make no secret of, ….Vouch is now common only in the phrase vouch for, which has taken the place of avouch in ordinary use.

How sad that we have relegated vouch  to use only paired with “for”. We should vouch more often, if we’re not going to avouch. But then we don’t aver much either, and Fowler states that avouch is a solemn averring. So be lighthearted in the use of aver, but be solemn about avowing (or avouching, or vouching.)