SINCERE

English

Etymology

From Middle French sincere,

from Latin sincerus (“genuine”),

from Proto-Indo-European *sem- + *ḱer- (“grow”),

from which also Ceres (“goddess of harvest”) from which English cereal.

Unrelated to sine (“without”) + cera (“wax”) (folk etymology);

Sincerity

17 languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the virtue. For the phrase "Yours sincerely", see Valediction.

For other uses, see Sincerity (disambiguation) and Sincere (disambiguation).

A silhouette drawing of a woman saying what she thinks

Sincerity is the virtue of one who communicates and acts in accordance with the entirety of their feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and desires in a manner that is honest and genuine.^[1]

Sincerity in one's actions (as opposed to one's communications) may be called "earnestness".

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary and most scholars state that sincerity from sincere is derived from the Latin sincerus meaning clean, pure, sound. Sincerus may have once meant "one growth" (not mixed), from sin- (one) and crescere (to grow).^[2] Crescere is cognate with "Ceres," the goddess of grain, as in "cereal".^[3]

According to the American Heritage Dictionary,^[4] the Latin word sincerus is derived from the Indo-European root *sm̥kēros, itself derived from the zero-grade of *sem (one) and the suffixed, lengthened e-grade of *ker (grow), generating the underlying meaning of one growth, hence pure, clean.

Controversy

An often repeated folk etymology proposes that sincere is derived from the Latin sine = without + cera = wax. According to one popular explanation, dishonest sculptors in Rome or Greece would cover flaws in their work with wax to deceive the viewer; therefore, a sculpture "without wax" would be one that was honestly represented. It has been said, "One spoke of sincere wine... simply to mean that it had not been adulterated, or, as was once said, sophisticated."^[5]: 12–13 Another explanation is that this etymology "is derived from a Greeks-bearing-gifts story of deceit and betrayal. For the feat of victory, the Romans demanded the handing over of obligatory tributes. Following bad advice, the Greeks resorted to some faux-marble statues made of wax, which they offered as tribute. These promptly melted in the warm Greek sun."^[6] The Oxford English Dictionary states, however, that "there is no probability in the old explanation from sine cera 'without wax'".[citation ^needed]

The popularity of the without wax etymology is reflected in its use as a minor subplot in Dan Brown's 1998 thriller novel Digital Fortress, though Brown attributes it to the Spanish language, not Latin. Reference to the same etymology, this time attributed to Latin, later appears in his 2009 novel, The Lost Symbol.