verisimilitude

I'm not sure what I like so much about this word.  It has a pretty simple meaning, and a pretty simple story.  Somehow, I suppose it just feels delicate to say, as if the truth were a dainty vintage lace handkerchief or porcelain teacup you have to handle just so, lest it disintegrate into a million tiny pieces and blow away in some no longer recognizable form.

The OED gives the following definitions for the word verisimilitude:

"1a. The fact or quality of being verisimiliar; the appearance of being true or real; likeness or resemblance to truth, reality or fact; probability

1b. especially of statements, narratives, etc.

2. A statement, etc., which has the mere appearance or show of being true or in accordance with fact; an apparent truth."

The AHD tells us that the word comes from veri, the feminine genitive form of Latin verum, meaning truth, plus similis, meaning similar or like.