ratify

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ratifien,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French ratifier (“to approve, confirm, accept as valid”),^{[6][3][4][5][2][7]} recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1276^[8] and in Old French from 1294.^[6] The French verb is from Medieval Latin ratificō (“to confirm, make valid”), found from the 12th century in British sources, then from the 13th on the Continent,^[6] and formed from Latin ratus (“fixed, determined, valid”) and -ficāre, from faciō (“to make”),^[6][3][9] or, according to Barnhart, through a lost adjective *ratificus (“making valid”).^[4] The Latin ratus is the past participle of reor (“to reckon, think”),^[3][4][7] from Proto-Indo-European *re- (“to reason, count”).^[3] The Medieval Latin verb literally meant "to fix by reckoning".^[3][9] Italian ratificare is recorded from before 1348.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To confirm or validate by giving formal consent: 1357, in J. Gaytryge's Lay Folks' Catechism.^[6][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The core sense of formal confirmation has held since Middle English, and today the verb is typically used of a treaty or contract.^[6][10] From before 1425 the verb could also mean declaring a statement to be true, in the Mandeville's Travels of the Egerton manuscript,^[6][2] though the Shorter Oxford calls this now rare or obsolete.^[7] Several narrower senses have died out: confirming possession of land or goods, from 1469, in Scottish records; fixing the rate or price of goods, from 1511 to 1526; and confirming a person in faith or courage, from 1559 to 1665.^[6] Applied to a marriage, the verb meant to consummate it, from 1561.^[6][7] Johnson (1755) gives "to confirm; to settle", with a quotation from Hooker on the church's power to ratify what has been done before.^[11] Wright's dialect dictionary records it for "to clear up, settle" in Lanarkshire, and has under its own heading the meanings "to scold" and "to grieve, mortify" from Lincolnshire and East Anglia.^[12]

Timeline

• 1357 – to confirm or validate by formal consent.^[6][2][4]
• before 1425 – to declare or confirm the truth of a statement.^[6][2]
• 1469 – to confirm the possession of land or goods (obsolete by 1850).^[6]
• 1511 – to fix the rate or price of goods (obsolete by 1526).^[6]
• 1559 – to confirm a person in faith or courage (obsolete by 1665).^[6]
• 1561 – to consummate a marriage; to carry out, complete.^[6]
• 1599 – to guarantee the fulfilment of a purpose or hope (obsolete by 1861).^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give formal approval to something so that it becomes valid, especially a treaty or agreement: Both parliaments ratified the trade deal in the spring.^[13][10][6]
2. To confirm the truth of something; to verify.^[10][6][7]
3. (rare) To consummate a marriage; to bring to completion.^[6][7]
4. (obsolete, 1599–1861) To guarantee the fulfilment of a purpose or hope.^[6][7]

Word family

• ratifier
• ratification
• nonratifying

Related words

• rate
• ratio
• ration
• reason

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins