Learn English – Does the theory that “sincerely” originated from “without wax” hold any merit

etymologymeaning

I've read somewhere that there is a folklore origin of the word, sincere. In ancient Spain during the Renaissance era, when the sculptors working overtime made any mistakes, they used wax or cera to hide the defects in their works. However, when exposed to full sunlight, the wax used to dissolve and their faults became apparent. Thus, sculptures without any defects came to be known as sin-cera, Spanish for "without wax" and later on, it originated the English word, sincere.

However, mainstream English scholars don't accept this theory. As is apparent from a Google search, the usual answer you get is that sincere is derived from the latin sincerus for pure or clean.

Sincerely, what actually is the origin of the word sincerely?

Best Answer

The adverb is from the 1530s:

sincerely (adv.):

1530s, "correctly;" 1550s, "honestly," from sincere + -ly (2). As a subscription to letters, recorded from 1702.

sincere (adj.):

sincere (adj.) Look up sincere at Dictionary.com 1530s, "pure, unmixed," from Middle French sincere (16c.), from Latin sincerus, of things, "whole, clean, pure, uninjured, unmixed," figuratively "sound, genuine, pure, true, candid, truthful," of uncertain origin. The ground sense seems to be "that which is not falsified." Meaning "free from pretense or falsehood" in English is from 1530s.

Etymology Online however actually deems it worthy to list the interpretation of your question as disclaimer on the same page:

There has been a temptation to see the first element as Latin sine "without." But there is no etymological justification for the common story that the word means "without wax" (*sin cerae), which is dismissed out of hand by OED and others, and the stories invented to justify that folk etymology are even less plausible. Watkins has it as originally "of one growth" (i.e. "not hybrid, unmixed"), from PIE *sm-ke-ro-, from *sem- "one" (see same) + root of crescere "to grow" (see crescent). De Vaan finds plausible a source in a lost adjective *caerus "whole, intact," from a PIE root meaning "whole."

(Etymonline)

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