Etymologically
Log in

fidens

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word fidens

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
81–43 BC, Cicero
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*bʰeidʰ-e/o-)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin fido
Latin fidens

Forms

fīdēns (genitive fīdentis, comparative fīdentior); third-declension one-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin fīdō (“to trust”).[1][2][3] De Vaan traces fīdō to Proto-Italic *feiþe- (“to trust”) and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeidʰ-e/o- (“to trust”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,[5] who in the Tusculan Disputations says that the brave man is also fīdēns, since cōnfīdēns is used of a fault, and that he who is fīdēns has no fear.[6]

Semantic evolution

It means self-confident, assured, bold, and with the genitive confident in something.[1] Cicero writes in a letter that a remark is the evidence not of a confident man but of a frightened one,[6] and in Virgil's Aeneid someone is told to meet the enemy with a bold breast.[6] The OLD records the comparative fīdentior.[1] Stelten gives "faithful, sincere, true" for Church Latin, with the adverb fīdenter.[7]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero distinguishes it from cōnfīdēns.[6][5]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil of a bold breast.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Self-confident, assured, bold;[1][6] (with genitive) confident in.[1][6]
  2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Faithful, sincere, true.[7]

References

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

“Fidens.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/fidens. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·