| Comment | "Witnesseth" cannot be a title as such, but it can stand at the beginning of a block of text.
The link given by Noli leads to a definition which is misleading in meaning, and also witnesseth is not the first person singular but the third. (The first person singular is "I witness")
"witnesseth" is archaic but is still used. It is usually found in one of two places in a document.
1. At the beginning, after a Preamble, which recites details of why the document is being created. Because of x, y and z, this document (usually it will be the document) "witnesseth" as follows... I esxpect it could be found without a preamble, but that would not on the whole be best style. Documents should be grammatically correct! In this context, "bezeugt" seems to me a good translation. I have just typed bezeugt into Leo and it actually has witnesseth as a translation.
2. At the end, after all the details of the document, there may be some reference to "witnesseth" before the signatures of the parties. Here it means that A and B add their signatures and "witness" by their signatures to their sincerity and intentions. Again "bezeugt" or "bezeugen" seem to me good, but here it is the parties who are witnessing, not the document. |
|---|