Reading the News

Near the end of the list stands a fonte fidedigna, and the adjective is a whole sentence folded up. Fidedigno is fide dignus, worthy of faith: the source has earned the trust you are about to place in it. English owns the same Latin stock — « faith », « fidelity », « confide », « bona fide » — but it never built that compound, and the word a newsroom here reaches for comes from the other side of the transaction. « Reliable » is built on « rely », which arrived from Old French relier, to bind together again, from Latin religare, that is re- plus ligare, to tie. The same knot is in « ligature » and in « alliance ». To rely on somebody was once to fasten yourself to them. So the two languages grade a source by opposite tests: fidedigna looks at the source and asks whether it deserves faith, while « reliable » looks at the reporter and asks whether the rope will hold. Both end up in print as the same phrase, and the picture underneath has been quietly swapped.