An Anglo-Saxon concept which meant continuity of personhood. Honorable and trustworthy people were thought to be so only because they had troth; they would continue to be the same person who had made a promise or raised an expectation in previous times.

Troth (?), n. [A variant of truth. See Truth.]

1.

Belief; faith; fidelity.

Bid her alight And hertroth plight. Shak.

2.

Truth; verity; veracity; as, by my troth.

Shak.

In troth, thou art able to instruct gray hairs. Addison.

3.

Betrothal.

© Webster 1913.