The true story of 'true' - Gina Cooke

View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/the-true-st...
The older the word, the longer (and more fascinating) the story. With roots in Old English, 'true' shares etymological ancestors with words like betroth and truce...but also with the word tree. In fact, trees have been metaphors for steadfastness and faithfulness for as long as the word true has defined the same qualities. Gina Cooke describes the poetic relationship between 'tree' and 'true.'
Lesson by Gina Cooke, animation by Brad Purnell.

[@nounaboubou4513]

I don't know why, but this guy's voice keeps me coming back, It's just relaxing listening to him speaking lol

[@2b-coeur]

Same!

[@bell6394]

I KNOW RIGHT I RLLY WANT TO MEET HIM

[@abdllaabozhra349]

True !

[@camerontaylor7471]

It’s called the power of the serpent, it’s the human tongue, that’s why Einstein has a famous picturing him with his tongue out... he’s symbolically representing the serpent priesthood, the fall of man from paradise into hello is centered in around forging document using the serpent to claim and maintain power ...

[@alia.b5411]

That’s weird man 😂

[@unison_moody]

Props to the animator. This is some good work there!

[@degenerals6127]

Do you know how do they do it ?

[@terencebritton9631]

One word for 'True' in Japanese is 本当 whose first character '本' is also the character for tree.

[@oranjedrurgen8934]

+Terence Britton very very interesting. i guess it's because of shintoism and the same kind of thought processes as Western people have made

[@yandere-kuninyourcloset5741]

tree 木 and the first kanji of hontou 本当 which is 本/ hon in on reading or motto in kun reading, are two different kanji. 本 means book or origin and 木 means tree. this is why Japan in japanese is Nihon 日本 which means sun origin

[@ouwkyuha]

that's very interesting.. that proved our anchestors have relation by their language or just have some lucky same thought.. note: 木 is east-asia word that means tree.. #justinfo

[@SuperManning11]

But even the kanji for origin comes from the kanji for tree, it just adds a single horizontal stroke to represent the roots of the tree.

[@Glossophile]

That's a heck of a linguistic coincidence. I'm confident they're not related but I love learning about written words and writing systems from other people.

[@weme11]

The animation was beautiful

[@K.S.Khunkhao]

One of my favourite ted-ed videos of all time, more like this please :))

[@maghoshc8778]

ขุนเขามีคําตอบ - Answers from Khunkhao check this out- kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKi7Z4eXeZaZsKM

[@DarthHesperidium]

Eh

[@josiya4187]

They dont miss

[@buffylopez]

the tree will set you free

[@HarshRao]

loved the storytelling, animation and narration.. it just gave me goosebumps at the end.. so that's true power of truth.

[@Glossophile]

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!

[@sumaiyazaman8126]

I could listen all day to this Addison Anderson man. Why is his voice so lullaby-like?

[@zetetick395]

It'd be great to get a full series of these animated etymology videos - very enjoyable! :)

[@wei-hsuanhsia9647]

Seen many TED-ED and liked them a lot. But this one is simply fascinating! Great job

[@Glossophile]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jonahs92]

夏維瑄 哈哈，但是他们写了"中国的"，没写"中文"。

[@Ahajamo1990]

I learned something today.

[@Glossophile]

That's the goal, isn't it? Glad you liked it.

[@Ahajamo1990]

^_^

[@adventureawaits3860]

The truth

[@diktrishabiswas]

The animation, graphics, explanation, information, his voice, the slides, the background music is perfectly to the point... It's not only soothing my heart but also cherish my brain... Thanks a lot... Want more videos like this....

[@Remyueru]

This is why I love etymology =)

[@kushantaiidan]

Well my mind is blown. Had this nickname or username for 20 years. Maybe I truly am a tree druid.

[@loleq2137]

Tree wtf youtube is 10 years old not 20

[@user-gb5pp2ii4k]

LOLeq21 But nicknames can be used outside KZbin

[@camerontaylor7471]

Tree try having my name. Cameron Tré Taylor... and the city I’ve lived in my entire life and still do is sealed as “the city of trees” ... it’s like wtf! I really did send myself here before I was born!

[@raccoonasmr]

true

[@PaltryPete]

Just a few days ago it hit me that the English word 'true' and the Danish word for 'faith/to believe' (tro) were related. Seems I was sort of right. Interesting video!

[@xoran4863]

+PaltryPete Im Danish, and i can confirm your statement :)

[@songbird7450]

I learned that old English actually has the same grammar as German so my language is kind of the mother of you language :D

[@kamileishon]

Same in Swedish also of course :)

[@felixirguy828]

Songbird Both English and German have developed from a single language called Proto-Germanic, that's why they are similar.

[@StrangerHappened]

For comparison, instead of ancient pagan spiritualism and beliefs in trees, in Slavic languages the word "truth" is akin to "righteousness" in the meaning, it is connected to the concept of "right" and "straight" that about about "correct" way of doing or understanding things. In Chinese the word "truth" comes from hieroglyphs meaning someone positioned straight on top of some sort of table/podium from where h/se could establish what is going on, what is "real", what is actually happening. Because of this the hieroglyphs for "truth" and "real" are similar even to this day.

[@Watupm]

0:40 such awesome animation

[@mckluggin8234]

that ending *deserves* a sub

[@dyahsashanti2179]

every time i watch ted video is always end up with amazement. so inspiring and mind blowing. makes me want to know more about this world. thanks ted! :)

[@djdedan]

3:06 that squirrel LOL!

[@MrBkbnk]

0:57 This doesn't say Chinese language it literally says "of China" which makes me thing the animator got that by typing "Chinese" into google translate

[@jonahs92]

MrBkbnk 就是!

[@gslle65]

same with the greek

[@leideneric]

Spotted that too. Lame animator lol

[@gslle65]

@@leideneric everything else was beautiful tho ✨

[@theocelot6772]

你说对了

[@debiprasadkonar3044]

Goosebumps after goosebumps... This is the best story told

[@Ficalos]

That was awesome.

[@copyplanter]

I love watching and listening to your videos ❤️

[@chadd990]

I love the way this video was put together.

[@annemarieharm1773]

Excellent video! Visually *and* verbally. Thank you.

[@christianjaketabara5520]

One of the best videos from TED-Ed. Also, beautiful animation! Great! 👏🏻

[@PlainsPup]

Great etymology. Thank you!

[@tobortine]

Captivating

[@idaliakulik]

Awesome animation. Whoever came up with this style is a great professional

[@ellesko]

True is a cognate of the German word "treu", meaning faithful or loyal. Faithful to reality literally translates to "realitätsgetreu" or "wirklichkeitsgetreu" but these terms are mostly used to describe naturalistic paintings, sculptures, miniature models and the like. I assume the relevant meaning here was rather "wahrheitsgetreu" (faithful to [the] truth), which is obviously more or less just a fancy way of saying "wahr" (true). Circle closed! So is a true friend the same as "ein treuer Freund"? Yes and no. The accurate translation of a true friend is "ein wahrer Freund" whilst "ein treuer Freund" is a loyal friend -- but since an illoyal friend isn't really a true friend, this distinguation is rather redundant. Of course loyalty should be kept within reasonable borders. As a German I'm aware of the problem caused by unlimited loyalty (in German: "grenzenlose Loyalität" or "unerschütterliche Treue"), with "unerschütterlich" actually meaning unshakeable or steadfast, leading back to the property of that massive tree that made up the root of the word true. In the same way that regal and royal are more or less the same, one coming directly from Latin, the other one taking the detour through French, legal and loyal are also cognates of one another, although their meanings have diverged significantly. The German word for legal is "gesetzestreu" (faithful to the law), a word of course that nobody in Germany ever uses... or do they?

[@rudyspective1870]

Truth Be Told.

[@Nicola56]

In Proto-Celtic the word for truth is wîrjâ and twig is wejâ and tree beljâ, this is so fascinating.

[@rosey9cheeks]

I was blown away by the video. It was very well made and the connections made was awesome! I guess you do learn something new everyday :)

[@celsaprado4185]

Beautiful. Thank you.

[@twiligh4trinitya]

It'd be cool if this video delved deeper into the connection of trees and truth in the Biblical sense. Great video!

[@sagganutsnina]

that was one of the most beautiful ted eds ever made

[@BridgeBuilder2006]

Lovely tale well told!

[@Celeste-in-Oz]

Wonderful. Mesmerised by the graphics. Yet for me it missed a central metaphor - that a tree only ever produces 'true to type' - for example you can always count on an apple tree to only ever produce apples.

[@incompetentlogistics]

One of the most interesting words to me is "melancholy". It has such a vast story with many different odds and ends.

[@Reciprocity_Soils]

Intrigued.

[@daniellbondad6670]

Nice and relaxing story.Definitely true and faithful to reality.Real as a tree.

[@Sr.Estroncio38]

One of the best videos of ted-ed

[@f.dehchar8194]

I loved the silence at the end when he spoke the last words. Without that load annoying ending note that blows your ear-drums halfway through the room. Just silence... Ahhhhhh...

[@shawnbay2211]

So poetic

[@mikloskeninger6434]

I LOVE this animation + the voice

[@strange_and_magnificent]

One of the best animation styles!!

[@robbyschwartz]

beautiful!

[@BellesLettresMagazin]

1:50: Trust, Betroth and truce are not further up the family tree, but further down. 'true' < Protogermanic truuu-a- 'loyal, faithful' is the direct stem of the e-root. 2:15 'Tree' and 'true' are not the same word in Old English lexicon and of course not in the mind of of its speakers. The common basis of these words is much more deeper in the past: at least 6000 years. 2:29 The problem with the steadiness of trees metaphor is that there is nothing so unsteady as the Indo-European tree words as a result of the expansion of IE into areas with previously unknown trees. That's why trees are more like vague treenesses in the European IE languages. The truth can't be associated with the the uprightness of an oak, because the common root was thousands of years before the first IE speaker ever saw an oak. This is the reason why Greek and Latin use beech for oaks. The beeches, German Buche, were seen by IE speaker for the first time on German soil. 2:42 Trees as the oldest living organisms on this planet: This has nothing to do with the history of these words. It is an ad hoc explanation. I don't really understand what connection the video really wants to make, but it seems to me that 'true' was named after the steadiness and consistency of long-living trees. This ist Osthoff (Parerga I) from 1901. Today, we know that it goes the other way round: 'Tree' comes from 'true' (or better German 'treu' = faithful, loyal), because the tree-branch of that root is an h2-derivation of the common root. It didn't denote trees as plants but simply the hardness of wood as a material.

[@atomheartother]

The only real issue I can see in this whole thing is saying that treow meant Tree in old english. But overall he only took a shortcut to say that treow does have a very close parenting, etymologically, with 'tree' in Indo-European. It wasn't exactly "the other way around", it's just that the word used for solid or steadfast objects was used to describe trees in a lot of languages and evolved into treow as well in old english... At the end of the day it was vulgarization but I wouldn't exactly hold itagainst them, the main point is to transmit some knowledge for people who are interested to do some research of their own, not to give an english lecture.

[@atomheartother]

Nevermind, you're right, it was the other way around.

[@Glossophile]

This is a short video I wrote for a target audience of high school students, not a presentation at a historical linguistics conference. Nonetheless, I am happy to respond to your detailed commentary. The 'further up' rather than 'further down' the family tree is a stylistic animation choice; the script is correct in claiming that these words all share a source. Also, no claim is made that the words for 'tree' and 'true' are the same in the Old English mind, but it is accurate that , properly inflected, could mean either. Just because speakers may not be aware of the relationships between words does not mean that the relationships don't exist; for example, see my other video on the 'doubt.' It is absolutely true that the spelling is attested in Old English texts with both meanings -- not necessarily In the same texts, or even in the same dialects, but the attestations are well-documented. The specific examples of oaks and birches are not meant to be biologically precise, but conceptually relevant. And no claim is made about the directionality of the derivation; the video doesn't claim that derived from , but that they share an origin, which they do. The point of the piece about the age of trees, and their sacred place in many cultures, is that trees have been a powerful constant in the human experience. It's not ad hoc, but germane to the connection between the two words. The video is not a science lesson; rather, it tells a story. A true story.

[@Glossophile]

And, for the record, I'm not a "he." Didn't your high school English teacher ever tell you not to confuse the narrator with the author?

[@BellesLettresMagazin]

Gina Cooke Gina, I liked the video, but have you thought about what impression it makes to normal people? Do you really think, they say: That's quite an impressionistic feature out of Gina's beautiful mind, but let's not confuse it with real research! They'll think that this is how it truly has happened. They think that there was one word threow in OE that had two meanings: tree and true. Because people were wiser than we are and always thought of the widom of trees when it comes to truth. Actually, there were two words that by coincidence of the English sound laws had the same form and were used differently. In all other Germanic languages at that time, they had different forms, Old Norse thus for instance: tré (tree) and truyggur (true). Or Gothic: triu (tree) and triggws (true). Your video is a little bit like the Prometheus movie: Everything is connected with everything somehow, but when you think about it, it makes no sense. Wouldn't it be more fascinating to learn how people who lived a long time ago, really imagined the world?

[@dankrishnadasan9295]

The animation is so beautiful

[@user-om8zb5sr8n]

Damn, "true" is deep.

[@blazeknight2009]

That was beautiful.

[@atiyatarannum7572]

Wonderful!

[@coffee-8278]

Mind blowing.

[@Elk0990]

I'm pretty sure the narrator's name wasn't Gina...

[@SuperNumber420]

haha

[@JaguarBST]

ThickBeet name suggest who wrote the article

[@ouwkyuha]

i'm pretty sure you didn't see the credit... lol

[@ProfessorSyndicateFranklai]

Yeah it's Addison Anderson

[@humanityyy]

Words and language in particular are very interesting. How and what made us decide what words meant what?

[@elizabethcoopersoutham6573]

magnificent truth !

[@BesoGvenetadze]

That was absolutely brilliant.

[@Glossophile]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@Missnaughty011]

I love the animations

[@Gameleste]

great work, keep it up!

[@maryrelmum]

Thanks you, guys, for video!

[@AznEyes145]

I'm inlove with the animation

[@lotusgal313]

I love it when these videos get philosophical

[@skasso12]

Amazing

[@strange_and_magnificent]

This guy’s voice is so relaxing 😎 😌.

[@kamileishon]

loved it!

[@LucianoWagner]

Thanks!

[@NACYQIANsherry2]

real good analogy

[@betadryl]

mysteries in vernacular indeed

[@ltericdavis2237]

3:10, squirrel's like, "You talkin' bout me?"

[@MrCooldude4172]

This video is "truly" amazing. ;).

[@baharhabibi9581]

That was so amazing does anyone knows a book a book witch talks about these kind of things?

[@inbisatanwar9675]

Perfect

[@filmfan4]

In Medieval literature trees and long amounts of time are both martial images. It’s interesting that in our language the same connections exist but under different origins. Perhaps there is such a thing as universal imagery or even a universal language which once existed before branching off into the languages of today?

[@morsnihil]

Cool, I didn't know most of this!

[@feathertail6327]

I don’t understand how this doesn’t have more views

[@bennybooboobear3940]

This is super interesting.

[@shizaihtsham1526]

AHMAZZINGGG!

[@emberhermin52]

Please make more etymology videos!

[@daedra40]

Marvelous. Truly :P

[@shadesofthecityky8082]

The Chinese characters that are shown on 0:58 are simplified Chinese, which are definitely not the most 'historical' type among all Chinese written systems. It is a system that was popularised by the Communist in the 1950s to encourage literacy, as traditional Chinese was considered too difficult to master for general public. Hence it would be more accurate to use traditional Chinese in your video to represent the long history of Chinese

[@kenziecampbell1398]

THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL

[@marioordonez8135]

We humans are always looking for the truth.

[@enriquecamposkaufman5439]

What is the name of the profession that studies this kind of stuff? I'm interested in this same topic but in french language

[@sromonasengupta9-c512]

Brad purnell is a genius. So are trees

[@roenroderio3844]

That was sooooo TRUE

[@jell0pudding580]

props to the art person for that 5000 year old tree

[@wallflovr]

It's beautifully true

[@abdillahfamilychannel8418]

Hi Addison Anderson ^_^ You are great narrator...

[@kooroshsadri8888]

Is there an academic research area focused solely on finding the word roots? I find the business extremely interesting :))

[@MrShadahan]

wow

[@user-cw1md6no6d]

in greek the oak is "drys" I wonder if this connects somehow to the word tree or the Druids because the resemblance is strikening

[@HelloHamburger]

"A single word can tell a story" Ted-ED the true story of 'true' - Gina Cooke Tell me about it, I'm learning Japanese and a lot of Kanji have radicals (parts of the drawing) which can have meaning within the written word itself and combine with other kanji to mean a multitude of things. You can infer a lot of origins of kanji within the meaning word itself.

[@wushish]

Lovely :) no mention of Buddha and the Bodhi tree though?

[@kiryu63]

Who else is watching this for online school?

[@LifeTheorist]

A tree falls the way it leans.... is a quote from the Lorax. Which came out in 2012...

[@jackdawcaw4514]

I kind of hoped this would debunk what most people think it means for something to be true. But it was entertaining nevertheless, and it was alluded to I guess.

[@SuperCalebxy]

+jackdawcaw What do you mean?

[@moachocka]

Yeah, I thought it was gonna be something philosophical haha

[@SuperManning11]

I was hoping for that as well. We all need a new definition of 'truth' after surviving this election cycle. Seems to me that truth is so much more malleable than I had thought, mostly due to one's perspective, but still, even the facts seem relative these days.

[@Glossophile]

The video predates this election and its author never imagined such a thing.

[@crossroadsbymbed]

True...

[@D4bbl3zGaming]

Isn't this the point of the "Mysteries of the Vernacular" series? Just wondering why they made this a separate video.

[@anaikahas]

I tought that too for a moment, but then I thought if this Gina Cooke wants to make a cool lesson about the word 'true', TED-Ed would be more than happy to put it online.

[@Glossophile]

The Mysteries of Vernacular is its own series that TED shares, but this video is a TED original. Also, the MoV films illustrate the etymology of a single word, whereas this video goes a little farther by illustrating the relationships between the histories of two words.

[@user-ff1qk8eo8l]

Truth must be the tree which a true system has to be consistent like a tree.

[@jericcayoung4087]

Amen 😭

[@zandrewmorano4747]

Why does the outro have no audio? Am I the only one noticing it? Tree or Falls?