Meaning
The closing portion of the common-law witness oath, promising total honesty: to tell the truth (no falsehood), the whole truth (nothing withheld), and nothing but the truth (nothing added). Invoked beyond courtrooms as a rhetorical guarantee of complete candour, usually verbatim as the full formula ending 'so help me God'. The medieval dating claims (Old English, thirteenth century) circulate widely but without evidence; report them as tradition. In court, witnesses who cannot swear may affirm the same promise. Outside court the phrase is a stock intensifier of candour and a setup for jokes about lying. Regional use: Common-law jurisdictions; now global English.
Origin
The formula's early history is murky, and medieval datings do not survive scrutiny. Slate's history of the courtroom oath reports only that the phrase 'is believed to have initially been coined in Old English' and to have become 'a staple of English trials by approximately the 13th century' - belief, not attestation. Firm anchors come later: Noah Webster referred to the 'whole truth' oath in a 1787 essay, and Bouvier's Law Dictionary of 1856 still described witnesses kissing the Bible after swearing. The familiar three-part gloss takes the truth as what the witness perceived, the whole truth as nothing material withheld, and nothing but the truth as no falsehood added. Statute now fixes the wording: the oath forms of England and Wales, Scotland, India and the United States all enshrine versions of 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth', per Wikipedia's sworn-testimony survey.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- nothing but the truth
- the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
Usage Examples
- The witness raised her hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
- His memoir promises the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the band's breakup.
- Opening a story with the whole truth and nothing but the truth usually signals the opposite.