Etymologically
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confiteor

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [kõːˈfɪ.te.ɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [koɱˈfiː.te.or][1]

Forms

cōnfiteor (present infinitive cōnfitērī or cōnfitērier, perfect active cōnfessus sum); second conjugation, deponent[1] Plautus has the archaic infinitive cōnfitērier.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + fateor (“to admit, acknowledge”).[3][4][1] De Vaan traces fateor to Proto-Italic *fat-ē-, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂-to- (“spoken”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”), cognate with Oscan fatíum (“to speak”);[5] he reports Ernout and Meillet's view that this compound and profiteor (“to declare”) are older than the simple verb.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the Twelve Tables.[5] In Plautus a captive tells his master tibi est cōnfessus vērum, “he has told you the truth”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Cōnfitērī is “to admit” a fact, “to acknowledge” the truth of a charge, and “to confess” a crime or fault (Cicero: a wrong you could neither deny nor defend); in poetry it is to admit defeat.[3][2][1] It is also “to reveal, show” by an act or by one's face (Ovid: cōnfessa … vultibus īram, “showing anger in her face”), and of things “to be evidence of”.[3][1]

In Church Latin it means “to praise, give thanks” as well as “to confess”, and Cōnfiteor is the prayer in which one admits one's sins and asks pardon.[6][1] English confess comes, through Old French, from a Vulgar Latin verb formed on its past participle cōnfessus, in the late 14th century.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it.[5][8]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tibi est cōnfessus vērum.[3][8]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid: cōnfessa … vultibus īram.[3][8]
  • late 14th century – English confess.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To admit, acknowledge.[3][2][1][6]
  2. To confess (a crime or fault).[3][2][1][6]
  3. To reveal, show; to be evidence of.[3][1]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To praise, give thanks.[6][1]

Noun

  1. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Cōnfiteor, a prayer confessing sin and asking pardon.[6]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de