trueとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From Middle English trewe, from 古期英語 trīewe, (Mercian) trēowe (“trusty, faithful”), from Proto-Germanic *triwwiz (compare Saterland Frisian trjou (“honest”), Dutch getrouw and trouw, German treu, Norwegian and Swedish trygg (“safe, secure’”), from pre-Germanic *drewh₂yos, from Proto-Indo-European *drewh₂- (“steady, firm”) (compare Irish dearbh (“sure”), Old Prussian druwis (“faith”), Ancient Greek δροόν (droón, “firm”)), extension of *dóru (“tree”). More at tree.

For the semantic development, compare Latin robustus (“tough”) from robur (“red oak”).

発音

• enPR: trōō, IPA^(key): /tɹuː/, [t̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷu̠ː]
• (古風な用法) IPA^(key): /tɹjuː/
• (now dialectal) IPA^(key): /tɹɪʊ̯/
• 韻: -uː

形容詞

true (comparative truer または more true, superlative truest または most true)

1. (of a statement) Conforming to the actual state of reality or fact; factually correct.

   This is a true story.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698, page 110:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […]. Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, OCLC 483591931, page 249:

     The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.

   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. […] One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries, as policing has spread and the routine carrying of weapons has diminished. Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

   1. As an ellipsis of "(while) it is true (that)", used to start a sentence

      True, I have only read part of the book, but I like it so far.

2. Conforming to a rule or pattern; exact; accurate.

   a true copy;   a true likeness of the original

   • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter XI, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662, page 229:

     […] making his eye, foot, and hand keep true time […]

3. (logic) Of the state in Boolean logic that indicates an affirmative or positive result.

   "A and B" is true if and only if "A" is true and "B" is true.

4. Loyal, faithful.

   He’s turned out to be a true friend.

5. Genuine; legitimate, valid.

   This is true Parmesan cheese.

   The true king has returned!

   • 1568, William Cornysh, “In the Fleete Made by Me William Cornishe [...]”, in John Skelton; J[ohn] S[tow], editor, Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate, Imprinted at London: In Fletestreate, neare vnto Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe, OCLC 54747393; republished as Pithy Pleasaunt and Profitable Workes of Maister Skelton, Poete Laureate to King Henry the VIIIth, London: Printed for C. Davis in Pater-noster Row, 1736, OCLC 731569711, page 290:

     The Harpe. […] A harper with his wreſt maye tune the harpe wrong / Mys tunyng of an Inſtrument ſhal hurt a true ſonge

   • 2012 January 1, Henry Petroski, “The Washington Monument”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 16:

     The Washington Monument is often described as an obelisk, and sometimes even as a “true obelisk,” even though it is not. A true obelisk is a monolith, a pylon formed out of a single piece of stone.

6. Used in the designation of group of species, or sometimes a single species, to indicate that it belongs to the clade its common name (which may be more broadly scoped in common speech) is restricted to in technical speech, or to distinguish it from a similar species, the latter of which may be called false.

   true sparrows (Passer)

   true spiders

   true blusher (Amanita rubescens, as distinguished from the false blusher, Amanita pantherina)

7. (of an aim または missile in archery, shooting, golf, etc.) Accurate; following a path toward the target.
   • 1801, Mrs. Cowley, “The siege of Acre”, in The British Critic, volume 17-18, page 521:

     Whate'er the weapon, still his aim was true, Nor e'er in vain the fatal bullet flew.

   • 2008, Carl Hiaasen, The downhill lie: a hacker's return to a ruinous sport, page 188:

     I held my breath and struck the ball. My aim was true, but I didn't give the damn thing enough gas. It died three feet from the cup.

8. (of a mechanical part) Correctly aligned or calibrated, without deviation.

   Is my bike wheel true? It feels unsteady.

9. (chiefly probability) Fair, unbiased, not loaded.
   • 1990, William W. S. Wei, Time Series Analysis, →ISBN, page 8:

     Let ${\displaystyle Z_{t}}$ be twice the value of a true die shown on the ${\displaystyle t}$-th toss.

   • 2006, Judith A. Baer, Leslie Friedman Goldstein, The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: Cases in Law and Social Change →ISBN

     In fact, few profit margins can be predicted with such reliability as those provided by a true roulette wheel or other game of chance.

   • 2012, Peter Sprent, Applied Nonparametric Statistical Methods, Springer Science & Business Media →ISBN, page 5

     We do not reject, because 9 heads and 3 tails is in a set of reasonably likely results when we toss a true coin.

10. (of a literary genre) based on actual historical events.

    true crime

    true romance

    • 1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 69:

      [A] skinny blonde of about twenty sitting in an armchair by an electric fire reading a true romance magazine.

反意語

• (of a statement, logic, loyal): false
• untrue

派生語

関連する語

• truth

副詞

true (not comparable)

1. (of shooting, throwing etc) Accurately.

   This gun shoots true.

   • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:

     Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.

2. (archaic) Truthfully.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, OCLC 932920499; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     I tel you true my hart is ſwolne with wrath,
     On this ſame theeuish villain Tamburlain.

名詞

true (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 trues)

1. (uncountable) The state of being in alignment.
   • 1904, Lester Gray French, Machinery, Volume 10:

     Some toolmakers are very careless when drilling the first hole through work that is to be bored, claiming that if the drilled hole comes out of true somewhat it can be brought true with the boring tool.

   • 1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “(please specify the page)”, in Tales of the Jazz Age, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, OCLC 1043023724:

     She clapped her hands happily, and he thought how pretty she was really, that is, the upper part of her face—from the bridge of the nose down she was somewhat out of true.

   • 1988, Lois McMaster Bujold, Falling Free, Baen Publishing, →ISBN, page 96:

     The crate shifted on its pallet, out of sync now. As the lift withdrew, the crate skidded with it, dragged by friction and gravity, skewing farther and farther from true.

   • 1994, Bruce Palmer, How to Restore Your Harley-Davidson:

     The strength and number of blows depends on how far out of true the shafts are.

2. (uncountable, obsolete) Truth.
3. (countable, obsolete) A pledge or truce.

派生語

• in true
• out of true

動詞

true (三人称単数 現在形 trues, 現在分詞 trueing または truing, 過去形および過去分詞形 trued)

1. To straighten (of something that is supposed to be straight).

   He trued the spokes of the bicycle wheel.

2. To make even, level, symmetrical, or accurate, align; adjust.

   We spent all night truing up the report.

使用する際の注意点

• Often followed by up.

派生語

• true-up

アナグラム

• -uret, Treu, rute