Veracity has been a part of English since the early 17th century, and we can honestly tell you that it derives from the Latin adjective vērāx ("truthful"), which in turn comes from the earlier vērus ("true"). Vērus also gives us verity ("the quality of being true"), verify ("to establish the truth of"), and verisimilitude ("the appearance of truth"), among other words. In addition, vērāx is the root of the word veraciousness, a somewhat rarer synonym and cousin of veracity.
What gives the book its integrity are the simplicity and veracity of these recipes and the small touches—bits of history, discovery and personal reflection. Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator, 31 Mar. 1998The trial began with a flurry of motions and questions challenging the judge's authority and veracity. The defendants earlier had called the judge's authority into question when jurors were selected two weeks ago. Chris Bird, San Antonio Express-News, 23 Jan. 1996… some documentary photographers supported the photographer's right to find essential rather than literal truths in any situation, while others … insisted on absolute veracity, maintaining that for images to be true to both medium and event, situations should be found, not reenacted. Naomi Rosenblum, A World History of Photography, 1989 We questioned the veracity of his statements. The jury did not doubt the veracity of the witness.
Recent Examples on the WebLatini’s sly, intimate grin has nothing to do with an attempt at biblical veracity.Washington Post, 7 Sep. 2022 As far as historical veracity goes, well, this epoch will be very foreign terrain for most viewers, who will come away with at least a general sense of the period, if not a lot of trustworthy answers to any classroom quiz. Dennis Harvey, Variety, 5 Sep. 2022 In the midst of this boom, questions have been raised about the screening processes of some of these clinics, as well as the level of care provided and the veracity of the claims about ketamine’s effects. Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2022 This requires infrastructure readiness to accommodate the velocity, volume, value, variety and veracity of data generated by IoT devices.Forbes, 17 Aug. 2022 In the weeks after the story broke, Facebook and Twitter acted to restrict its circulation because of concerns over its origins and veracity. Kat Tenbarge, NBC News, 11 Aug. 2022 For decades, its veracity lay in question — until its authenticity was verified by international teams of archaeologists.Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2022 The tl;dr version of all this: Fox News has been playing an extraordinary amount of defense on this story — first by doubting its veracity and then by deflecting to the real issue at play here. Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 14 July 2022 The production, in which Denmark was imagined as a chilling surveillance state, incorporated the use of video to powerful effect—the Ghost is initially observed on grainy security footage—and was heralded for its emotional veracity. Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 6 June 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
borrowed from New Latin vērācitāt-, vērācitās, from Latin vērāc-, vērāx "truthful" + -itāt-, -itās-ity — more at very entry 2