Sincerity
Sincerity
Sincere (adj.)
1530s, "pure, unmixed, unadulterated;" also "free from pretense or falsehood," from French sincere (16c.), from Latin sincerus, of things, "whole, clean, pure, uninjured, unmixed," figuratively "sound, genuine, pure, true, candid, truthful" (unadulterated by deceit), a word of uncertain origin.
There has been a temptation to see the first element as Latin sine "without." But there is no etymological justification for the common story that the word means "without wax" (*sincerae), which is dismissed out of hand by OED, Century Dictionary ("untenable"), and others, and the stories invented to justify that folk etymology are even less plausible.
Watkins has it as originally "of one growth" (i.e. "not hybrid, unmixed"), from PIE *sm-ke-ro-, from *sem- "one" (see same) + root of crescere "to grow" (from PIE root *ker- (2) "to grow"). De Vaan finds plausible a source in a lost adjective *caerus "whole, intact," from a PIE root meaning "whole."
Source: etymonline.com/word/sincere
Image Metadata
Title
Joyce Carol Oates [author, in Canada]
Names
Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer
Created / Published
[ca. 1972]
Headings
Slides--Color--1970-1980.
Notes
-
Title based on information from slide mount and other caption information provided by the photographer.
-
Gift; Bernard Gotfryd; 2004; (DLC/PP-2004:032).
Medium
1 photograph : color transparency ; 35mm (slide format)
Call Number/Physical Location
LC-GB05- 2837 [P&P]
Source Collection
Bernard Gotfryd photograph collection (Library of Congress)