Distantly cognate with theOld Englishwǣr(“true”). Over time displaced the use of a number of Germanic words or prefixes to convey the sense 'very' such asfele,full-,mægen,sore,sin-,swith, (partially)wel.
Thevery essence of truth is plainnesse, and brightnes; the darknes and crookednesse is our own.
1659,Henry Hammond,A Paraphrase and Annotations upon All the Books of the New Testament, London: Richard Davis, 2nd edition, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3, verse 19, p. 517,[1]
[…] they that think to be wiser then other men, are by so muchverier fools then others, and so are discerned to be.
1796,Edmund Burke,A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension[2], London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington, page30:
I looked on the consideration of publick service, or publick ornament, to be real andvery justice: and I ever held, a scanty and penurious justice to partake of the nature of a wrong.
1855,Chambers's Journal, page257:
[…] : he has become avery democrat. He disdains not to be seen in the back-parlour of the petty tradesman, or the cleanly cottage of the intelligent mechanic. He raises his voice in the cause of progress;[…]
Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to hervery marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, inNew York Times[3]:
The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained thevery idea of government, on the other.
Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon thatvery night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.
We have many examples in our daies, yea invery children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.
2004, Paul Campos,The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health, Penguin,→ISBN:
Given the degree of fear and loathing inspired by thevery thought of a fat body in America today, it is important to emphasize that all of the medical information in the counterfactual world I have just sketched is itself quite factual.
Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and wasvery clean. There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tiradevery different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
