There are some people today who feel that the important characteristics of elected officials—i.e. politicians—should be honesty, integrity, and trust. Politicians also promise hope and revolution in their campaigns.
Honesty
In the early fourteenth century honesty entered into English with the meaning of “splendor, honor, elegance” and by the late fourteenth century it had acquired a meaning of “honorable position; propriety of behavior, good manners; virginity, chastity.” Like many words in English, the etymology of honesty can be traced back to Old French: oneste, honesté meaning “respectability, decency, honorable action.” The Old French probably evolved from the Latin honestatem meaning “honor received from others; reputation, character.”
Integrity
About 1400 integrity came into English with the meaning “innocence, blamelessness; chastity, purity.” Integrity came from the Old French integrité which came from the Latin integritatem meaning “soundness, wholeness, completeness.” By the mid-fifteenth century integrity had acquired the sense of “wholeness, perfect condition.”
Trust
The word trust came into English about 1200 with the meaning “reliance on the veracityor other virtues of someone or something; religious faith.” Its origins are found in the Old Norse traust meaning “help, confidence, protection, support” and is from the Proto-Germanic abstract noun *traustam.
About a century after it emerged in English, trust had acquired the meaning of “reliability, fidelity, faithfulness” and in the late fourteenth century it acquired the meaning of “confident expectation” and “that on which one relies.” In the early fifteenth century, trust acquired the legal meaning of “confidence placed in one who holds or enjoys the use of property entrusted to him by its legal owner.”
In 1877, trust acquired the meaning of “a business organized to reduce competition” and in 1903, the term trust-buster was first recorded.
Hope
The noun hope is from the late Old English hopa meaning “confidence in the future.” About 1200, hope acquired the meaning of “expectation of something desired” and in the late fourteenth century “thing hoped for.”
The verb to hope is from the Old English hopian meaning “have the theological virtue of Hope; hope for salvation, mercy; trust in God’s word.” The Old English hopian is generally felt to be of an unknown origin.
Sometime in the early thirteenth century, to hope took on the meaning “to wish for; to desire.”
Revolution
In the mid-fifteenth century, revolution acquired the general meaning of “instance of great change in affairs”, while the political meaning of “overthrow of an established political system” emerged about 1600. This meaning of revolution was applied to the expulsion of the Stuart dynasty under King James II and the transfer of sovereignty to William and Mary.
When revolution first came into English in the late fourteenth century, it referred to celestial bodies and came from the Old French revolucion which came from the Late Latin revolutionem meaning “a revolving.”