Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Oath

Definition: Oath

Oath

Noun

1. Profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger; "expletives were deleted".

2. Affirming the truth of a statement; to lie under oath is to become subject to prosecution for perjury.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "oath" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Etymology: Oath \Oath\ ([=o]th), noun; plural Oaths([=o][th]z). [Old English othe, oth, ath, Anglo-Saxon [=a][eth]; akin to Dutch eed, Old Saxon [=e][eth], German eid, Icelandic ei[eth]r, Swedish ed, Danish eed, Gothic ai[thorn]s; compare to OIr. oeth.]. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Oath

DomainDefinition

Satire

OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon the conscience by a penalty for perjury. Source: Devil's Dictionary.

Computing

OATH Object-oriented Abstract Type Hierarchy, a class library for C++ from Texas Instruments. Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.

19th Century Satire

A form of speech that has many trials in court, but is never tried in Sunday School. Source: Foolish Dictionary, 1904.

Bible

Oath a solemn appeal to God, permitted on fitting occasions (Deut. 6:13; Jer. 4:2), in various forms (Gen. 16:5; 2 Sam. 12:5; Ruth 1:17; Hos. 4:15; Rom. 1:9), and taken in different ways (Gen. 14:22; 24:2; 2 Chr. 6:22). God is represented as taking an oath (Heb. 6:16-18), so also Christ (Matt. 26:64), and Paul (Rom. 9:1; Gal. 1:20; Phil. 1:8). The precept, "Swear not at all," refers probably to ordinary conversation between man and man (Matt. 5:34,37). But if the words are taken as referring to oaths, then their intention may have been to show "that the proper state of Christians is to require no oaths; that when evil is expelled from among them every yea and nay will be as decisive as an oath, every promise as binding as a vow." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Dream Interpretation

Whenever you take an oath in your dreams, prepare for dissension and altercations on waking. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Literature

Oath The sacred oath of the Persians is By the Holy Grave - i.e. the Tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried in Casbin. (Strut.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Specialty Definition: Hippocratic Oath

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.

"To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; to look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction. I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art. In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal. If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."

See: Hippocrates

The Hippocratic Oath has been updated by the Declaration of Geneva, q.v.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Hippocratic Oath."

Top     



Oath of office

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

An oath of office is a sworn statement/oath a person takes before officially assuming the office. It is administered at a swearing-in ceremony, or inauguration, and, most of the time (in Western countries), sworn with one hand on the Bible.

In the United States, the oath of office for the President of the United States is specified in the U.S. Constitution. The oath may be sworn or affirmed.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Oath of office."

Top     



Vow

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A vow (Lat. votum, vow, promise:see vote) is a transaction between a man and a god whereby the former undertakes in the future to render some service or gift to the god or devotes something valuable now and here to his use.

The god on his part is usually reckoned to be going to grant or to have granted already some special favour to his votary in return for the promise made or service declared. Different formalities and ceremonies may in different religions attend the taking of a vow, but in all the powers of heaven or of hell bear witness to it, with all its consequences. A vow has to be distinguished, firstly, from other and lower ways of persuading or constraining supernatural powers to give what man desires and to help him in time of need; and secondly, from the ordered ritual and regularly recurring ceremonies of religion. These two distinctions must be examined a little more at length.

It would be an abuse of language to apply the term vow to the uses of imitative magic, e.g. to the action of a barren woman among the Battas of Sumatra, who in order to become a mother makes a wooden image of a child and holds it in her lap. For in such rites no prominence is given to the idea -- even if it exists -- of a personal relation between the petitioner and the supernatural power. The latter is, so to speak, mechanically constrained to act by the spell or magical rite; the forces liberated in fulfilment, not of a petition, but of a wish are not those of a conscious will, and therefore no thanks are due from the wisher in case he is successful. The deities, however, to whom vows are made or discharged are already personal beings, capable of entering into contracts or covenants with man, of understanding the claims which his vow establishes on their benevolence, and of valuing his gratitude; conversely, in the taking of a vow the petitioner's piety and spiritual attitude have begun to outweigh those merely ritual details of the ceremony which in magical rites are all-important.

Sometimes the old magical usage survives side by side with the more developed idea of a personal power to be approached in prayer. For example, in the Maghreb (in North Africa), in time of drought the maidens of Ma.zouna carry every evening in procession through the streets a doll called ghonja, really a dressedup wooden spoon, symbolizing a pre-Islamic rain-spirit. Often one of the girls carries on her shoulders a sheep, and her companions sing the following words:

Rain, fall, and I will give you my kid.
He has a 'black head', he neither bleats
Nor complains; he says not, 'I am cold.'
Rain, who filiest the skins,
Wet our raiment.
Rain, who feedest the rivers,
Overturn the doors of our houses.

Here we have a sympathetic rain charm, combined with a prayer to the rain viewed as a personal goddess and with a promise or vow to give her the animal. The point of the promise lies of course in the fact that water is in that country stored and carried in sheep-skins.1

Secondly, the vow is quite apart from established cults, and is not provided for in the religious calendar. The Roman vow (votum), as W. W. Fowler observes in his work The Roman Festivals (London, 1899), p. 346, 'was the exception, not the rule; it was a promise made by an individual at some critical moment, not the ordered and recurring ritual of the family or the State.' The vow, however, contained so large an element of ordinary prayer that in the Greek language one and the same word (ebxi~) expressed both. The characteristic mark of the vow, as Suidas in his lexicon and the Greek Church fathers remark, was that it was a promise either of things to be offered to God in the future and at once consecrated to Him in view of their being so offered, or of austerities to be undergone. For offering and austerity, sacrifice and suffering, are equally calculated to appease an offended deity's wrath or win his goodwill.

The Bible affords many examples of vows. Thus in Judges 11. Jephthah 'vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whosoever cometh forth out of the doors of my house' to meet me, when I return in peace from the children. of Ammon, it shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt-offering.' In the sequel it is his own daughter who so meets him, and he sacrifices her after a respite of two months granted her in order to 'bewail her virginity upon the mountains.' A thing or person thus vowed to the deity became holy or taboo; and for it, as the above story indicates, nothing could be substituted. It belonged to once to the sanctuary or to the priests who represented the god. In the Jewish religion, the latter, under certain conditions, defined in Leviticus 27, could permit it to be redeemed. But to substitute an unclean for a clean beast which had been vowed, or an imperfect victim for a flawless one, was to court with certainty the divine displeasure.

It is often difficult to distinguish a vow from an oath. Thas in Acts 23:21, over forty Jews, enemies of Paul, bound themselves, under a curse, neither to eat nor to drink till they had slain him. In the Christian Fathers we hear of vows to abstain from flesh diet and wine. But of the abstentions observed by votaries, those which had relation to the barbel's art were the commonest. Wherever individuals were concerned to create or confirm a tie connecting them with a god, a shrine or a particular religious circle, a hair-offering was in some form or other imperative. They began by polling their locks at the shrine and left them as a soul-token in charge of the god, and never polled them afresh until the vow was fulfilled. So Achilles consecrated his hair to the river Spercheus and vowed not to cut it till he should return safe from Troy; and the Hebrew Nazarite, whose strength resided in his flowing locks, only cut them off and burned them on the altar when the days of his vow were ended, and he could return to ordinary life, having achieved his mission. So in Acts 18:18 Paul had shorn his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.' In Acts 21:23 we hear of four Jews who, having a vow on them, had their heads shaved at Paul's expense. Among the ancient Chatti, as Tacitus relates (Germania, 3 I), young men allowed their hair and beards to grow, and vowed to court danger in that guise.

Footnote 1:
Professor A. Eel in paper Quelq ise rites pour obtenir la pluic, in xiv Congrès des Orientalistes (Alger, 1905).

Text from 1911 EB.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Vow."

Top     

Synonyms: Oath

Synonyms: curse (n), curse word (n), cuss (n), expletive (n), swearing (n), swearword (n). (additional references)

Top     

Synonyms within Context: Oath

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Affirmation

Depose, depone, aver, avow, avouch, asseverate, swear; make oath, take one's oath; make an affidavit, swear an affidavit, put in an affidavit; take one's Bible oath, kiss the book, vow, vitam impendere vero; swear till one is black in the face, swear till one is blue in the face, swear till all's blue; be sworn, call Heaven to witness; vouch, warrant, certify, assure, swear by bell book and candle.

Asseveration, adjuration, swearing, oath, affidavit; deposition; (record); avouchment; assurance; protest, protestation; profession; acknowledgment; (assent); legal pledge, pronouncement; solemn averment, solemn avowal, solemn declaration.

As God is my witness, I must say, indeed, i' faith, let me tell you, why, give me leave to say, marry, you may be sure, I'd have you to know; upon my word, upon my honor; by my troth, egad, I assure you; by jingo, by Jove, by George; troth, seriously, sadly; in sadness, in sober sadness, in truth, in earnest; of a truth, truly, perdy, in all conscience, upon oath; be assured; (belief); yes; (assent); I'll warrant, I'll warrant you, I'll engage, I'll answer for it, I'll be bound, I'll venture to say, I'll take my oath; in fact, forsooth, joking apart; so help me God; not to mince the matter.

Announce; (information); acknowledge; (assent); attest; (evidence); adjure; (put to one's oath).

Malediction

Curse and swear; swear, swear like a trooper; fall a cursing, rap out an oath, damn.

Abuse; foul language, bad language, strong language, unparliamentary language; billingsgate, sauce, evil speaking; cursing; Verb: profane swearing, oath; foul invective, ribaldry, rude reproach, scurrility.

Promise

Noun: promise, undertaking, word, troth, plight, pledge, parole, word of honor, vow; oath; (affirmation); profession, assurance, warranty, guarantee, insurance, obligation; contract; stipulation.

Adjure, administer an oath, put to one's oath, swear a witness.

Adjective: promising; Verb: promissory; votive; under hand and seal, upon oath.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Top     

Crosswords: Oath

English words defined with "oath": affidavit, Affirmant, affirmation, Antiburgher, attestation, attested, avowedbearing false witness, Book oath, bound, Bribery oathcharacter witness, Compurgation, Conjurator, Corporal oathDanite, Dejerate, demonstrative of, depone, deposeEnomotyForswearerGode-yearHalidom, Hippocrates, Hippocratic oathInviolacyJuramentum, Jurat, Juratorylying under oathNonjurorOath of abjuration, Oath supremacy, Oathable, Oathbreaking, Oaths, ObjurationPardie, perjury, pledgedRapper, rip outsanction'Sblood, 'SnailsSonties, Suppletory, swear, swear in, swearer, swearing, sworn, Sworn brothers'SwoundsTest act, testimony, To lift up the hand, To rap out, To renounce probate, To rip out, To swear the peace against one, To take in vainUnswear, unsworn, untruthfulVoir dire, Voluntary affidavitwitnessZounds. (references)
Specialty definitions using "oath": BIBLE OATH, Blow MeCatholic Roll, Cock and Pie, Copyhold Estate, COURT CLERK, CROOK YOUR ELBOWdeclaratory statement, Dunmow FlitchElisabeth, ElishebaFINGERPRINT CLERK IGo to!, Great Scott, Greenlandman's GalleyHighgate, Hook, Hooks, Horns of the AltarKERRY SECURITY, Kiss the BookLeft-handed OathMarino Faliero, Marry!NonjurorsPiper that Played before MosesSacred Way, SALAMON, SALMON, Saucer Oath, Sheba, Skinners, Stars and Garters!Texas InstrumentsZounds!. (references)
Etymologies containing "oath": Sonties. (references)

Top     

Modern Usage: Oath

DomainUsage

Screenplays

Do you know what a blood oath is Mr. Ness (The Untouchables; writing credit: Oscar Fraley; Eliot Ness)

Remember when we made that blood oath to be friends forever, not just sisters (Charmed; writing credit: Colman deKay)

And if you want to talk about your oath of office, I'm here to tell you face to face, President Lyman, that you violated that oath when you stripped this country of its muscles -- when you deliberately played upon the fear and fatigue of the people and told them they could remove that fear by the stroke of a pen. And then when this nation rejected you, lost faith in you, and began militantly to oppose you, you violated that oath by not resigning from office and turning the country over to someone who could represent the people of the United States (Seven Days in May; writing credit: Fletcher Knebel; Charles W. Bailey II)

I was afraid that if I took the oath, that my wife wouldn't let me go. And the Exhausted Ruler said that ifyou took an oath, it would have to be broken forgenerations andcenturies ofhundreds of years and my wife would let (Sons of the Desert; writing credit: Frank Craven; Byron Morgan)

I figure a mans only good for one oath at a time, and I took my oath to the Confederate States of America (The Searchers; writing credit: Frank S. Nugent)

Movie/TV Titles

Oath of Vengeance (1944)

I Take This Oath (1940)

The Holy Oath (1937)

Ranger's Oath (1928)

A Lover's Oath (1925)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Commercial Usage: Oath

DomainTitle

Books

  

Theater & Movies

  • Arc the Lad - Oath of Vengeance (Vol. 5) (reference)

  • Under Oath (reference)

  • Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, Episode 39: Blood Oath (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Image Slideshow: Oath

Illustrations:
Oath

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Oath

More pictures...

Top     

Photo Album: Oath

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

[Code of medical ethics, 1949] : The Oath of Hippocrates. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Takes the Oath of Office as Chief of Naval Operations, in the Secretary of the Navy's office, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., on 1 August 1939. Administering the oath is Rear Admiral Walter B. Woodson, USN, Judge Advocate General. Witnesses are Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison (2nd from left) and the outgoing Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral William D. Leahy, USN, (at left). A portrait of Civil War era Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles is in the background. Credit: NAVY.

Photographed in his office, reading the "Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy" for Fiscal Year 1938. The photograph may have been taken on 1 August 1939, as Admiral Stark is wearing the same suit and tie as when he took the Oath of Office as Chief of Naval Operations on that date. See Photo # NH 57314. Credit: NAVY.

Lawyer: now, sir, remember you are under oath, and must tell me the exact truth, this young lady, at the moment you describe, was sitting on your lap?. Credit: Library of Congress.

Bill Clinton, standing between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, taking the oath of office of president of the United States. Credit: Library of Congress.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist administering the oath of office to George Bush on the west front of the U.S. Capitol, with Dan Quayle and Barbara Bush looking on, January 20, 1989. Credit: Library of Congress.

State capitol at Montgomery, Ala., where J. Davis took oath as president of confederacy. Credit: Library of Congress.

Wilcox residence, where President Roosevelt took the oath of office, Buffalo, N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress.

Rebs taking the oath at Richmond. Credit: Library of Congress.

Japanese-American volunteers. First pair of brothers among the AJA [Americans of Japanese ancestry] volunteers inducted into the U.S. Army in the territory were Chitsugi, twenty-three, and Minoru Manabe, twenty-eight, who took the oath of allegiance toget. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Top     

Familiar Quotations: Oath

AuthorQuotation

Homer

The Erinyes, who exact punishment of men underground if one swears a false oath.

Samuel Johnson

In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

Solon

Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.

William Shakespeare

He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Historic Usage: Oath

AuthorDateQuotation

Magna Carta

1215

An oath, moreover, has been taken, as well on our part as on the art of the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without evil intent. (reference)

John Locke

1690

And again, in his speech to the parliament, 1609, he hath these words, The king binds himself by a double oath, to the observation of the fundamental laws of his kingdom; tacitly, as by being a king, and so bound to protect as well the people, as the laws of his kingdom; and expressly, by his oath at his coronation, so as every just king, in a settled kingdom, is bound to observe that paction made to his people, by his laws, in framing his government agreeable thereunto, according to that paction which God made with Noah after the deluge. (Second Treatise of Government)

US Constitution

1791

When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. (reference)

US Bill of Rights

1795

Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (reference)

Amendment to US Constitution

1795-2006

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. (reference)

Marbury v. Madison

1803

To prescribe, or to take this oath, becomes equally a crime. (reference)

John F. Kennedy

1961

For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago. (reference)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Use in Literature: Oath

TitleAuthorQuote

Emma

Austen, Jane

From that moment, Emma could have taken her oath that Mr. Knightley had had no concern in giving the instrument

Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

And she took the oath.

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

He made haste to think of an expedient to make her forget the oath.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce, James

Lynch closed his ears and gave out oath after oath till the dray had passed

King Richard III

Shakespeare, William

If thou didst fear to break an oath with Him, The unity the King my husband made Thou hadst not broken, nor my brothers died

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Non-Fiction Usage: Oath

SubjectTopicQuote

Civil Liberties

Bhutan

The oath does not have religious content, but a Buddhist lama administers it. (references)

Mauritania

The oath of office includes a promise to God to uphold the law of the land in conformity with Islamic precepts. (references)

Bhutan

All government civil servants, regardless of religion, are required to take an oath of allegiance to the King, the country, and the people. (references)

Economic History

Pakistan

Approximately 85 percent of justices acquiesced, but a handful of justices were not invited to take the oath and were forcibly retired. (references)

Belgium

The present King, Albert II, succeeded his brother, King Baudouin, who died July 31, 1993. Albert took the oath of office to become King on August 9, 1993. (references)

Sri Lanka

Members of the TULF, the official opposition, lost their seats in Parliament when they later refused to swear a loyalty oath in Sinhala, a new constitutional requirement. (references)

Human Rights

South Africa

The SAHRC also has the power to conduct investigations, issue subpoenas, and hear testimony under oath. (references)

Ukraine

During the year, the High Judicial Council dismissed 41 judges,--38 for breach of oath and 3 for criminal convictions. (references)

Korea

However, on the occasion of a special presidential amnesty in March 1999, 17 long-term, unconverted prisoners (persons who had refused to renounce allegiance to the DPRK and Communist beliefs), were released without having to renounce their beliefs or sign an oath of obedience. (references)

Minorities

Belarus

The law grants citizenship to any person living permanently on the territory of the country as of October 19, 1991. Those who arrived after that date and wish to become citizens are required to submit an application for citizenship, take an oath to support the Constitution, have a legal source of income, and have lived in the country for 7 years. (references)

Political Economy

Ghana

President Kufuor took the oath of office on January 7, 2001, becoming the first elected president in Ghana's history to succeed another elected president. (references)

Political Rights

Peru

They were removed on grounds that they failed to abide by their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Top     

Spoken Usage: Oath

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Dennis Miller

While they are still bound by the Hippocratic Oath, nowadays they are also bound by the cost-cutting mandates of health insurers.

Lisa French

Well, like, they stated, under oath that nobody in the family ever tried to contact Derek and that's just not true.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Speeches: Oath

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

George Washington

1789-1797Previous to the execution of any official act of the President the Constitution requires an oath of office.

John Quincy Adams

1825-1829The members of the State and General Governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance is due to the one and to the other.

William H. Taft

1909-1913Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility.

Dwight Eisenhower

1953-1961We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence of God.

John F. Kennedy

1961-1963For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

Lyndon B. Johnson

1963-1969You take an oath, you step into an office, and you must then help guide a great democracy.

Richard Nixon

1969-1974I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Ronald Reagan

1981-1989To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.

Bill Clinton

1993-2001When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly.

George W. Bush

2001-2005With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Usage Frequency: Oath

"Oath" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.82% of the time. "Oath" is used about 540 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)99.82%53911,443
Noun (proper)0.18%1339,140
                    Total100.00%540N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

Top     

Derived & Related Names: Oath

The following table summarizes names derived from the word "oath".
 
NameGenderLanguageMeaning
BeershebaN/ABiblical

The well of an oath

ElisabethN/ABiblical

The oath

JehoshebaN/ABiblical

Oath

ShebaN/ABiblical

Oath

ElisaN/AEnglish

The oath

ElsaN/AEnglish

The oath

ÉliseN/AFrench

The oath

ElisaN/AGerman

The oath

ElsaN/AGerman

The oath

ElisaN/AItalian

The oath

ElsaN/ASwedish

The oath

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

 

Top     

Expression: Oath

Expressions using "oath": administer an oath administer an oath to administer an oath to smb. administer to oath to smb. administration of an oath be on one's oath binding by oath Book oath bound by an oath Bribery oath Burgess oath confirm by oath Corporal oath deposition under oath false oath give oath given under oath gospel oath grind out an oath hippocratic oath loyalty oath lying under oath military oath oath of abjuration oath of allegiance oath of truce oath supremacy oath taking on oath prohibit under oath promissory oath put smb. on his oath put smb. to his oath put to one's oath put under oath rap out an oath renunciation on oath swear an oath take an oath take one's oath gospel take the oath taking of an oath taking the oath tender an oath tender an oath to smb. testify under the oath To make oath To take oath under oath upon oath violate an oath voluntary oath. Additional references.

Hyphenated Usage

Beginning with "oath": oath-bound, oath-breaker, oath-breaking, oath-helpers, oath-taking.

Ending with "oath": bible-oath.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Oath

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

hippocratic oath

197

examination under oath

7

the oath

67

air enlistment force oath

6

the oath of office

40

military oath office

6

hypocratic oath

37

oath presidential

6

enlistment oath

31

loyalty oath

6

oath of the horatii

31

freeman oath

6

tennis court oath

24

oath office presidential

6

commissioner oath

24

enlistment navy oath

6

boy oath scout

21

oath of fealty

6

allegiance oath

19

necromancer oath

6

doctor oath

18

nurse oath

6

under oath

18

citizenship oath

5

hippocrates oath

17

oath olympic

5

oath scout

11

ceremony oath

5

military oath

10

alberta commissioner oath

5

blood oath

10

deck gathering magic oath

5

oath reenlistment

10

lawyer oath

5

hipocratic oath

9

physician oath

5

doctor hippocratic oath

9

commissioner oath ontario

5

masonic oath

7

god oath

4
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Top     

Modern Translation: Oath

Language Translations for "oath"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

eed. (various references)

   

Albanian

  

sharje (abuse, animadversion, bad language, chastisement, curse, damn, dispraise, dressing down, embroilment, invective, lashing, mudslinging, obscenities, quarrel, scolding, swear word, swearing, talking to, vituperation, wigging), përbetim (Davy, oath taking, vow), nëmë (odium), betim (attestation, faith, sacrament, swear, vow), be. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏يمين (right), ‏حلف يمينة, ‏حلف (administer, alliance, axis, confederacy, confederate, entente, swear, take an oath), ‏تجديف (profanation, profanity, rowing, stroke), ‏أدى القسم. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

клетва (adjuration, curse, damnation, imprecation, sacrament, vow), оброк (votive offering, vow), заричане (pledge), богохулство (blasphemy, profanity, swear). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

"言 (pledge, promise). (various references)

   

Czech

  

zaklení (cuss, swear word, swearword), přísaha (adjuration, vow), nadávka (abuse, bad name, swear word), kletba (bane, blight, curse, malison). (various references)

   

Danish

  

ed. (various references)

   

Dutch

  

eed, bezwering. (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

ĵuro. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

پیمان (Accord, Act, Agreement, Avow, Compact, Compaction, Concord, Contract, Covenant, Faith, Hand, League, Pact, Promise, Testament, Treaty, Troth, Vow), قسم خوردن (Avow), سوگند (Sacrament, Sanction). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

vala (vow). (various references)

   

French

  

serment, juron. (various references)

   

German

  

schwur (covenant, vow), Eid (expanded ID), fluch (anathema, ban, bane, blasphemy, curse, cuss, excommunication, expletive, hex, malediction, profanity, swearword, vexation). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

όρκοσ (swearing, vow), όρκος (vow, vows). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

שבות", שבוע" (curse, swearing, testament, vow), (vow). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

fogadalom (pledge, resolution, vow), eskü (to attest, to depose, vow), káromkodás (bad language, cursing, cuss, damn, expletive, profane words, profanities, profanity, swear, swear word, swearing, swear-word). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

sumpah (curse, cuss, swear), baiat. (various references)

   

Irish

  

mionn, eascainne. (various references)

   

Italian

  

giuramento (swearing-in), imprecazione (curse, imprecation), bestemmia (blasphemy, curse, nonsense, swear word). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

"詞 (pledge, vow), 宣" (abjuration). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

きせい (ardour, completed, correction, death, entreaty, established, existing, fervour, great master of go, homecoming, parasite, parasitism, pledge, prayer, rare, ready-made, realization of an objective, regulation, returning home, spirit, strange voice, uncommon, vigour, vow), せいが" (accurate, aiming at the eye, during one's lifetime, orderly, petition, regular, trim, well-organized, west bank, west coast, westward advance, while alive), せいし (authentic history, check, chief delegate, control, family name, filature, full name, heir, history, imperial command, inhibition, life and death, looking straight ahead, meditation, paper making or manufacturing, pledge, repose, restraint, senior envoy, silk reeling, sperm, spinning, standing still, stillness, successor, viewing sincerely, vow, written oath), せ"せいしょ, せ"せい (abjuration, ancient sage, autocracy, Confucius, despotism, doctor, headstart, master, preempt, teacher), めいやく (covenant, effective or well-known medicine, pact, pledge, superlative translation), ちかい (basement, block, boundary, bounds of the earth, cellar, close by, landmass, near, short, vow). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

(Oaths). (various references)

   

Manx

  

looee, loo (fewer, least; affidavit, little, littler, swear, swearing). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

oathay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

juramento (affiance, swearing, vow), jura. (various references)

   

Romanian

  

sudalmã, jurãmânt solemn, jurãmânt (adjuration, asseveration, sacrament, vow), înjurãturã (abuse, curse, cuss, damn, vernacular). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

клятва (adjuration, vow). (various references)

   

Scottish

  

mionn (an oath, imprecation), bóid (vow). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

zavet (pledge, promise, testament, vow), zakletva (vow), psovka (bad language, curse, curse-word, cuss, expletive, swear word, swearword), proklinjanje (damnification, execration, imprecation), kletva (anathema, curse, imprecation, malison), gadost (beastliness, nastiness). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

juramento (sacrament, vow). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

ed, svordom (curse, expletive, imprecation). (various references)

   

Thai

  

คำสบถ, คำสาบาน. (various references)

   

Turkish

  

yemin (adjuration, attestation, profession, sacrament, vow), yemín, sövgü (cursing, invectives, swear word, swearing), küfür (a bad word, abuse, blasphemy, contumely, curse, cuss, cuss word, expletive, invective, invectives, profanity, revilement, scurrility, strong language, swearing, swearword), ant (adjuration, vow). (various references)

   

Turkmen 

  

kasam, ant. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

клятва (adjuration, swear), виголошувати клятву, лайка (abuse, altercation, barge, chevrette, curse, damn, dog-skin, hassle, kid-skin, ordure, scold, swear word, vituperation), богохульство (profanity, sacrilege, swear), божіння, прокляття (anathema, ban, bane, curse, cuss, damn, damn it, damnation, darn, execration, imprecation, malediction, malison, perdition), проклін (damnation, wish), присягатися (swear), присяга (swear). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

sự không giữ lời thề (oath-breaking), người không giữ lời thề (oath-breaker). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

llw, arfoll (pledge, welcome reception). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Top     

Ancestral Language Translations: Oath

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Sumerian3100 BCE-2500 BCE

inim, nam-érim. (various references)

Akkadian3000 BCE-Modern

mamîtu. (various references)

Latin500 BCE-Modern

colius, iora, iosue, iura, iuramenta, iuramenti, iuramentis, iuramento, iuramentorum, iuramentum, iurandi, iurandum, iure, iuris, ius, ius iurandum iuris iurandi etc., iusiurandum, iusque, juramentum, numenius, promitto, sacramentum. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Top     

Bible Trace: Oath

LanguageDateSourceGenesis Chapter 24, Verse 41
Greek (transliterated)250 BCSeptuagintTote aqwoV esh apo thV araV mou hnika gar ean elqhV eiV thn emhn fulhn kai mh soi dwsin kai esh aqwoV apo tou orkismou mou
Latin405VulgateInnocens eris a maledictione mea cum veneris ad propinquos meos et non dederint tibi
Middle English1395WyclifThow shalt be ynnocent fro my curse, whan thow shalt com to my nyy kyn, and thei yyue not to thee.
Renaissance English1526TyndaleBut and yf (when thou comest vnto my kynred) they will not geue the one tha shalt thou bere no perell of myne oothe.
Jacobean English1611King JamesThen shalt thou be cle