avouch

/əˈvaʊt͡ʃ/

Etymology

From Old French avouchier, from Latin advocāre. Doublet of advocate, advoke, and avow.

avouch means evidence; declaration Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.

Why this word is great

AVOUCH — [Verb] To assert or affirm something positively and openly, with a sense of personal responsibility and authority. From Old French avouchier, from Latin advocāre ("to call to, summon, especially as a witness"), from ad- ("to") + vocāre ("to call"). Unlike "avow," a frank admission from within, or "affirm," a formal declaration of fact, to avouch is to stake one's own credit on the claim, offering a personal guarantee. It is the notary’s seal pressed into warm wax, the master artisan’s nod behind his apprentice’s work, the steady finger of a witness in a hushed courtroom—a spoken word made artifact, a bulwark against the erosion of trust.

noun

evidence; declaration“Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes.”

verb

To declare freely and openly; to assert.“Neither indeede would I have thought, that any such antiquities could have been avouched for the Irish, that maketh me the more to long to see some other of your observations, which you have gathered out of that country […]”
To acknowledge deliberately; to admit; to confess; to sanction.“Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;”
To confirm or verify, to affirm the validity of.“For ([…] as the sorowfull dooings of our present dayes do too certeinly avouch) greate men hurt not the common weale so much by beeing evil in respect of themselves, as by drawing others unto evil by their evil example.”
To appeal to; to cite or claim as authority.“And for proofe of their opinion they avouch many successions of authorities that no fee simple should passe before the condition performed.”