Credibility is how far people believe you before you have finished speaking. A surgeon has it about surgery. A stranger at your door with a clipboard does not.
It is built slowly and lost in a second — one thing you said that turns out to be untrue and the whole store of it is gone. Sources have it as much as people do: a newspaper, a study, a witness. You can lend it to something by putting your name on it, and you can damage it by putting your name on the wrong thing.
1nouncredibilityHow far someone or something deserves to be believed.~71%
“The witness lost all credibility when the letters were read out.”
synonyms: trustworthiness, believability
2nounstandingThe standing that makes people in a particular field take you seriously.~29%
“Twenty years on the ward gave her credibility with every nurse in the building.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 91 sentences found in the wild and placed 86 of them on a sense (5 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
credibility is a kind of reputation.
CRED-ibility → would I give you CREDIT?
The owner of the shop holds his credit book open, pen above your name, deciding whether you will really come back and pay.
hooks ontocredit
It sits on the same Latin root as credit, credible and creed — credere, to believe. Credibility is simply the amount of belief people are willing to extend you, and like credit it can run out.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱerd-
Latin
credibilis
Medieval Latin
credibilitas
French
crédibilité
English, today
credibility
French crédibilité, from Medieval Latin credibilitas, from Latin credibilis. by surface analysis, credible + -ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA