belief

将“belief”分解为“be”和“lief”。想象自己相信（be）一个轻飘飘的物体（lief），这个物体代表着你所相信的事情，通过这种轻飘飘的感觉来记忆“信念”的概念。

belief (n.)

late 12c., bileave, replacing Old English geleafa "belief, faith," from West Germanic *ga-laubon "to hold dear, esteem, trust" (cognates: Old Saxon gilobo, Middle Dutch gelove, Old High German giloubo, German Glaube), from *galaub- "dear, esteemed," from intensive prefix *ga- + *leubh- "to care, desire, like, love" (see love (v.)). The prefix was altered on analogy of the verb believe. The distinction of the final consonant from that of believe developed 15c.

"The be-, which is not a natural prefix of nouns, was prefixed on the analogy of the vb. (where it is naturally an intensive) .... [OED]

Belief used to mean "trust in God," while faith meant "loyalty to a person based on promise or duty" (a sense preserved in keep one's faith, in good (or bad) faith and in common usage of faithful, faithless, which contain no notion of divinity). But faith, as cognate of Latin fides, took on the religious sense beginning in 14c. translations, and belief had by 16c. become limited to "mental acceptance of something as true," from the religious use in the sense of "things held to be true as a matter of religious doctrine" (a sense attested from early 13c.).

1. The Greeks accepted belief in the immortality of the soul.

希腊人相信灵魂不灭。

2. Sweden is lovely in summer— cold beyond belief in winter.

瑞典的夏天非常宜人——冬天却冷得让人难以置信。

3. America's belief in its own God-ordained uniqueness started to erode.

美国人心中上帝赋予了他们独一无二的品质的信念开始逐渐丧失。

4. Belief in the utility of higher education is shared by students nationwide.

全国的学生都相信高等教育是有用的。

5. He holds the belief that he is a latter-day prophet.

他深信自己是当代先知。

【belief, conviction, faith, trust, confidence, credit】
这组词都有“相信，信任”的意思，其区别是：
belief: 普通用词，指单纯从主观上的相信，不着重这种相信是否有根据。
conviction: 多指根据长期交往或实践，对某人某事有了认识和了解后产生的信心和相信，侧重其坚定性。
faith: 语气较强，强调完全相信；有时也能仅凭感觉产生的相信。
trust: 强调相信、信任的完全可靠。
confidence: 指对某人某事有充分信心，断定不会使人失望，因而给予信任。
credit: 语气最弱，着重以声誉为信任的基础。