Abstract

‘Faithfulness’ is defined in The Oxford English Dictionary of 1901 in a way that leaves out what one might take as a central paradigm. The OED entry reads, in partFaithfulness … the quality of being faithful.A. Fidelity, loyalty …B. Strict adherence to one's pledged word; honesty, sincerity. …The feudal system, the army, and the rest of such things are provided for in ‘loyalty to a superior …’, and so are friends – after superiors. In, commercial interests are satisfactorily covered: ‘strict adherence to one's pledged word, honesty. …’ It is a nice piece of social history: from William the Conqueror to the latter phases of the Industrial Revolution, in two definitions. But a very odd piece of social history, in that conjugal faithfulness, the most existential one that there is, does not rate a mention.