(no subject)

[sillygoosegirl]

Does trust describe an action or a feeling/thing, in your opinion?

For example, if I say, "I trust my friend with my car." Does that imply an action: "I have given my friend my car keys or otherwise given her access to it." Or does it imply that I hold a feeling: "I believe that if I were to give my friend access to my car, nothing bad would happen (of if it did it would be made up for through $$ or friendship)."

I think I would tend to call the latter faith, and for the sake of clarity, I'd like the word trust to therefore imply the former. While the dictionary.com definitions tend to lend themselves to this distinction to some extent, it also calls trust and faith synonyms. So go figure.

The two concepts are clearly related... a person chooses to "trust" (as in taking the action), very often as a direct result of feeling "trust" (as in faith). But I think the distinction is important too.

Comments

[tortoise.livejournal.com]

In my idiolect, it depends on whether or not it takes an indirect object: "I trust my friend with my car" implies an actual tendency to give your friend your car keys (otherwise, you'd say "I would trust my friend with my car"). "I trust my friend", on the other hand, is more hypothetical.

[2gouda4u.livejournal.com]

I think the only circumstance where I'd say "I trust my friend with my car" is if I've leant them my car, and am explaining why I was willing to do so. I guess I don't tend to use trust as an action - I would probably say entrusted to imply action, instead (though I might be incorrect in doing so).

[willworker.livejournal.com]

What about things like "I trust my friend with my life"? Presumably you've not been almost-killed by most of your friends. Or do you tend to word it "I'd trust my friend with my life"?

Steve

[2gouda4u.livejournal.com]

Good question. I'm not sure I'd ever use that phrase (not that I don't trust anyone enough to trust them with my life). I think the phrase is common/cliched enough that I could probably use it without having to think about its grammatical construction, if that makes sense. There are many such phrases that I (and others) use to convey the standard meaning of said phrases without stopping to think about why those words coupled together mean what they do. However, should I decide to reconstruct your example, I think I would go with your latter suggestion.

[sillygoosegirl.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. There are some phrases out there that really don't mean at all what they sound like they should mean. For example, "I could care less" actually means "I couldn't care less"... at least as far as I can tell. Is this just people being lazy and leaving out the "n't"? Did the phrase originally drip with sarcasm? Is there an implied, "but I don't" after it? Is there something else going on that's harder to guess at?

[2gouda4u.livejournal.com]

That's always bothered me, too : ) I always figured people were just dumb/lazy, but that's not a very good explanation. I found an interesting discussion, but it doesn't provide any clear answers.

[willworker.livejournal.com]

I would probably say that in general usage, "trust" is more of a feeling. I feel like it's safe to lend my friend my car. In some technical senses, though, such as "trust relationships" and such with respect to security, trust is more of an object, something like access controls, which is more action-like. Computer accounts aren't "trusted," they're entrusted with certain abilities.

Steve

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

I think that "I trust my friend with my car" means "were I to give the car to my friend, I believe nothing bad would happen," while "I've entrusted my friend with my car" means "I gave the car to my friend temporarily." Or it might be like: "I let A use my car." "Oh, really?" "I trust A with my car." But "I trust my friend with my car" alone doesn't imply that you are actually entrusting the car to that friend.

Not like anyone ever says "entrust" anymore though.