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Origin and history of forthright

forthright(adj.)

Old English forðriht "direct, plain;" see forth + -right. Compare downright. Related: Forthrightly; forthrightness. As an adverb, from Old English forðrihte "straightway, at once; plainly."

Entries linking to forthright

downright(adv.)

c. 1200, "straight down, right down, perpendicularly," from down (adv.) + -right. The meaning "thoroughly, completely, utterly," often merely emphatic, is attested from c. 1300. As an adjective, "complete, absolute," from 1560s. Old English had dunrihte "downwards." The inverted form right-down is attested 17c.

forth(adv.)

Old English forð "forward, onward, farther; continually;" as a preposition, "during," perfective of fore, from Proto-Germanic *furtha- "forward" (source also of Old Frisian, Old Saxon forth "forward, onward," Old Norse forð, Dutch voort, German fort), from extended form of PIE root *per- (1) "forward." The construction in and so forth was in Old English.

-right

word-forming element in Old English and early Middle English, from old English riht "just, good, fair; proper, fitting; straight, not bent, direct, erect," which was used as the second element in compounds. See right (adj.1). Surviving in downright, forthright, etc.

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    blunt
    c. 1200, blunt, blont, "dull, obtuse" (of persons), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from or related to Old Norse blundra "to shut one's eyes" (see blunder (v.)). Or from Old English blinnan (past participle blon) "to stop, cease, come to an end." Of tools or weapons, "not sharp, wit
    candid
    1620s, "white, bright," from Latin candidum "white; pure; sincere, honest, upright," from candere "to shine" (from PIE root *kand- "to shine"). In English, the metaphoric extension to "frank, honest, sincere" is recorded by 1670s (compare French candide "open, frank, ingenuous, s
    frank
    c. 1300, "free, liberal, generous;" 1540s, "outspoken," from Old French franc "free (not servile); without hindrance, exempt from; sincere, genuine, open, gracious, generous; worthy, noble, illustrious" (12c.), from Medieval Latin francus "free, at liberty, exempt from service,"
    point-blank
    1570s, in gunnery, "having a horizontal direction," said to be from point (v.) + blank (n.), here meaning the white center of a target. The notion would be of standing close enough to aim (point) at the blank without allowance for curve, windage, or gravity. But early references
    symposium
    "convivial meeting for drinking, conversation, and intellectual stimulation," 1711, from Latin symposium "drinking party, symposium," from Greek symposion "drinking party, convivial gathering of the educated" (related to sympotēs "drinking companion"), from assimilated form of sy
    stoke
    1680s, "to feed and stir up" (a fire in a fireplace or furnace), a back-formation from stoker "one who maintains a fire in a furnace" (1650s); ultimately from Dutch stoken "to stoke," from Middle Dutch stoken "to poke, thrust," related to stoc "stick, stump," from Proto-Germanic
    dance
    c. 1300, dauncen, "move the body or feet rhythmically to music," from Old French dancier (12c., Modern French danser), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Low Frankish *dintjan and akin to Old Frisian dintje "tremble, quiver." Through French influence in arts and society, it
    cherub
    late 14c. as an order of angels, from Late Latin cherub, from Greek kheroub, from Hebrew kerubh (plural kerubhim) "winged angel," which according to Klein is perhaps related to Akkadian karubu "to bless," karibu "one who blesses," an epithet of the bull-colossus. Old English had
    dilemma
    1520s in rhetoric (see below), from Late Latin dilemma, from Greek dilemma "double proposition," a technical term in rhetoric, from di- "two" (see di- (1)) + lemma "premise, anything received or taken," from root of lambanein "to take" (see lemma). A form of argument in which it
    class
    c. 1600, "group of students," in U.S. especially "number of pupils in a school or college of the same grade," from French classe (14c.), from Latin classis "a class, a division; army, fleet," especially "any one of the six orders into which Servius Tullius divided the Roman peopl

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