forsooth

From Middle English for + sothe (“truth”)

• (General American), IPA^(key): /fɔɹˈsuθ/, enPR: fôr-sōōth′
• Rhymes: -uːθ

forsooth (not comparable)

1. (archaic or poetic) Used as an intensifier, often ironic: indeed, really, truthfully.

   Synonyms: in point of fact, in truth, to tell the truth; see also Thesaurus:actually

   • Hayward

     A fit man, forsooth, to govern a realm!

   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragœdy of Othello, the Moore of Venice. […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by N[icholas] O[kes] for Thomas Walkley, […], published 1622, OCLC 724111485, [Act I, scene 1], page 1:

     [F]or certes, ſayes he, / I haue already choſen my officer, and what was he? / Forſooth, a great Arithmeticion, [...]

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter VIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     Her eyes widened. She squeaked a bit. "Don't tell me she caught you bending again?" "Bending is right. I was half-way under the dressing-table. You and your singing," I said, and I'm not sure I didn't add the word "Forsooth!" Her eyes widened a bit further, and she squeaked another squeak.