The Salians’ Law-Codes and the Trust-Related Words Presented in Them

The chapter studies the Franconian manuscripts of the sixth and the ninth centuries to trace probable Franconian influence on the English language with regard to the “trust”-vocabulary. The study focuses on Title XLVI of Lex Salica, which is dedicated to the legal mechanism entitled De acfatmire. Moreover, it singles out the Frankish-Latin terminological units with the inherent notion of trust/confidence (for instance, antrustion, antrustio, in truste dominica, etc.), which are presented in Lex Ripuaria and Lex Salica. These terms are defined according to the data of several dictionaries of the Dutch and English languages. The research reveals that the stems (trust, trost, trist) of the Middle English trust and some of its variant forms [truste, trost(e, trist(e] were similar to the stems of the Frankish-Latin trustis and some of its variant forms (trostis, tristis). Moreover, in Middle English, the lexical units trust, truste, trist, and trost were used interchangeably in the context of entrusting relationships. This chapter ends with the supposition that the Middle English truste could appear under the influence of the Salic law.