confirmar

Forms

confirmar (first-person singular present confirmo, first-person singular preterite confirmé, past participle confirmado)^[1] Medieval texts have the forms confirmo, confirmamos, confirmada, confirmolo and confirmé, among others.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnfirmō (“to strengthen; to establish, confirm”), a learned word.^[3][4][5][6] The Latin verb is formed from con- and firmō (“to make firm”), from firmus (“firm, stable”).^[7][8][1] Corominas treats it in the article on firme, which continues the same adjective and kept its ⟨f-⟩ because of its frequent use in legal and notarial language.^[3]

The same learned verb is Portuguese confirmar, Catalan confirmar, French confirmer and Italian confermare.^{[9][10][11][1]} In French the form confermer, common until the 16th century, gave way to the form remade on the Latin.^[11]

The adjective goes back to *fermo- and *dʰer-mo- (“holding”), from the root *dʰer- (“to hold”).^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Breve diccionario dates the verb 1220–1250, the period of Berceo, and the Tentative Dictionary also starts with Berceo.^[4][13] The DCECH's date of 1100, in the same article, belongs to the adjective firme.^[3] The earliest hits of the CDH, from 1182 to 1218, are the subscriptions confirmo “I confirm” at the end of Latin charters, such as those of the monastery of Oña.^[14] The first sense is “to make valid, ratify”: in Berceo's Milagros a case is por carta [...] confirmado “confirmed by charter”.^[15]

Semantic evolution

The Siete Partidas of Alfonso X explain the word as “to make firm the thing that a man does or has done”.^[15] The prose of Alfonso X already has the four main senses: to bear out the truth of something, to ratify what was approved, to give more firmness, and to administer the sacrament of confirmation.^[16] Covarrubias defined it as “to revalidate what was done or said” and named the sacrament, in which the baptised are strengthened in the faith.^[17] The Diccionario de Autoridades put “to approve anew” first and “to prove, corroborate” second.^[18] From 1899 the Academy has given “to corroborate the truth” first, and its present dictionary adds a legal sense, the remedy of a curable defect in a contract.^[19][5] In the Dominican Republic it also means “to give someone a mocking nickname”.^[20]

Timeline

• 1182–1218 – confirmo in the subscriptions of Latin charters.^[14]
• c. 1230–1260 – Berceo uses the verb.^[13][4]
• 1256–1263 – the Siete Partidas define it.^[15]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin confirmo and obfirmo for confirmar en bien.^[21]
• 1559 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, for the bishop's confirmation.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sacramental sense.^[17]
• 1817 – the Academy lists four senses, ending with the sacrament.^[23]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology “from Latin confirmare”.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To confirm, corroborate (corroborar): to show that something is true, certain or likely: Los análisis confirmaron el diagnóstico.^[5][1]
2. To ratify or revalidate what has already been approved.^[5]
3. To make someone or something firmer or more secure; reflexive, to become firmer in a belief: Se confirmó en su opinión.^[5][24]
4. (law) To remedy, expressly or tacitly, a curable defect that makes a contract or legal act void.^[5]
5. (religion) To administer the sacrament of confirmation (confirmación); reflexive, to receive it.^[5]

Word family

• confirmación
• confirmante
• confirmativo
• confirmatorio

Related words

• firme
• afirmar
• firmar
• Latin cōnfirmō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. confirmar
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 902
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. firme
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. confirmar
6. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. confirmar
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. confirmō
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. confirmar
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 940
10. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. confirmar
11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. confirmer
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 130
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. confirmar
15. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 751
16. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. confirmar
17. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 501
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 501
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 255
20. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. confirmar
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 316
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. confirmar
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 226
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. confirmar