The b in doubt has never been pronounced in English, and it was added deliberately. English took the word about 1200 from Old French doter and spelled it douten or duten. Between the 1300s and 1500s, scribes in both French and English inserted a b to display the Latin ancestor, dubitare. French later thought better of it and dropped the letter; English kept it.
The Latin dubitare is related to dubius, "uncertain," and rests on duo, "two" — to doubt is to be of two minds, caught between two things. The English word's oldest sense, now dead, was "to dread, to fear," which it picked up in Old French; being uncertain is recorded from about 1300. Doubt sits with debt and receipt as the standard examples of a silent letter that records a scholar's claim about Latin rather than any sound English ever made.
doubt (v.) c. 1200, douten, duten , "to dread, fear, be afraid" (a sense now obsolete), from Old French doter "doubt, be doubtful; be afraid," from Latin dubitare "to doubt, question, hesitate, waver in opinion" (related to dubius "uncertain"), from duo "two" (from PIE root *dwo- "two"), with a sense of "of two minds, undecided between two things." Compare dubious . Etymologically, "to have to choose between two things." The sense of "fear" developed in Old French and was passed on to English. Meaning "to be uncertain, hesitate or waver in opinion" is attested in English from c. 1300. The transitive senses of "be uncertain as to the truth or fact of" and "distrust, be uncertain with regard to" are from c. 1300. The -b- was restored 14c.-16c. in French and English by scribes in imitation of Latin. French dropped it again in 17c., but English has retained it. It replaced Old English tweogan (noun twynung ), from tweon "two," on notion of "of two minds" or the choice between two implied in Latin dubitare. Compare German Zweifel "doubt," from zwei "two." also from c. 1200 doubt (n.) c. 1200, doute , "uncertainty with regard to the truth of something," from Old French dote (11c.) "fear, dread; doubt," from doter (see doubt (v.)). The -b- was inserted later, as in the verb. Meaning "a matter of uncertainty" is from late 14c. Phrase no doubt "without question, certainly" is from c. 1400. also from c. 1200
doubt came in through Latin, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
What gives it away on the page
| silent letters that spoil the pronunciation | Renaissance scribes inserted them to display a Latin ancestor. See the caveats below — this is the one cue that is often a lie.debt, doubt, receipt, salmon |