Vouch

How to spell vouch

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce vouch

What does vouch mean?

1. verbTo assert or guarantee the truth, accuracy, or reliability of something or someone, usually in the phrase 'vouch for'.

Vouch in a sentence

• Several colleagues will vouch for her honesty during the review.

• The landlord asked a previous tenant to vouch for me before approving the lease.

Where does vouch come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Vouch traces back to the Latin verb vocare, meaning 'to call' or 'to summon', which is also the source of words like 'vocation' and 'invoke'. It reached English in the 1300s through Old French voucher (sometimes vocher), a legal term meaning to call someone into court to back up or guarantee a claim, especially to confirm ownership of property. From that courtroom sense of calling a witness to support your case, the meaning broadened to the everyday idea of personally guaranteeing the truth or reliability of something or someone. The modern phrase 'vouch for' preserves this neatly: you are, in effect, calling on your own word as evidence. Because the spelling keeps the soft Old French 'ou' rather than a simpler vowel, it lines up with relatives like 'avouch' and the noun 'voucher', which originally meant a document that calls something into proof.

How the word is built

• vouch (from Latin vocare: to call, summon)