Did You Know?

We'll tell only the truth here: "veridical" comes from the Latin word veridicus, which itself is from two other Latin words: verus, meaning "true," and dicere, meaning "to say." "Verus" is an ancestor of several English words, among them "verity," "verify," and "very" (which originally meant "true"). The word verdict is related to "veridical" on both sides of the family: it also traces back to "verus" and "dicere." "Veridical" itself is the least common of the "verus" words. You're most likely to encounter it in contexts dealing with psychology and philosophy. ]>