afirma

Forms

afirma (present afirm, third-person singular afirmă, past participle afirmat), 1st conjugation.^[1][2] DELR records an old variant adfirma, closer to the Latin spelling.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French affirmer and directly borrowed from Latin affirmare (“to strengthen; to assert, declare”), a learned 19th-century neologism with two models.^[3][2][4][1] Tiktin names the Latin verb first and the French one second, and Pontbriant already gave the Latin word as its source in 1862.^[5][6] The Latin verb is formed ad- (“to”) + firmō (“to strengthen, confirm”), from firmus (“solid, firm”).^[3][7]

The French verb is a 13th-century remaking of the older Old French afermer, which had first meant “to make firm” and since 1119 also “to assert that something is true”; both forms come from the Latin verb.^[8] The Latin verb also lived on in Italian affermare and Catalan afermar.^[9] In Romanian, Graur puts the word in the family of ferm, confirma and infirma, all of them neologisms.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is of 1825, in a text by Vârnav, in the variant afirmălui; the form afirma appears in 1827, in Heliade-Rădulescu's manuscript Romanian grammar.^[3] Tiktin also dates the verb to 1825.^[5] The sense was “to declare firmly that something is true”.^[3] MDA2 quotes its first example only from Macedonski's works.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “to declare firmly, to maintain that something is true”, is still the main one.^[3][2] Tiktin glosses it with German “to say yes; to assure” and sets it against nega.^[5] The reflexive a se afirma “to make one's mark, to show one's worth” was current by the early 20th century: Șăineanu's example is s-a afirmat ca poet “he made his name as a poet”.^[12][13] French has had the matching s'affirmer “to show itself” since the middle of the 19th century.^[8] MDA2 adds technical senses in logic (to state a relation between subject and predicate) and in law (to declare before a court).^[11]

Some members of the family are recorded before the verb itself: afirmativ in 1821 and afirmație in 1815–1820, in Budai-Deleanu's variant afermație;^[3] DELR treats both as separate borrowings from French and Latin.^[3] Romanian then formed contraafirmare (1866, Maiorescu, after French contre-affirmation), reafirma (1882, Eminescu) and autoafirma “to assert oneself” (1931).^[3]

Timeline

• 1815–1820 – afermație “affirmation” in Budai-Deleanu.^[3]
• 1821 – afirmativ in L. Asachi.^[3]
• 1825 – the verb, as afirmălui, in Vârnav, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1827 – the form afirma in Heliade-Rădulescu's manuscript grammar.^[3]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary glosses it with French affirmer, assurer, soutenir.^[6]
• 1866 – contraafirmare in Maiorescu.^[3]
• 1882 – reafirma in Eminescu.^[3]
• 1931 – autoafirma in Vinea.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To assert or declare firmly; to maintain that something is true: Martorul afirmă că nu l-a văzut.^[2][11]
2. (reflexive) To make one's mark, to stand out, to show one's abilities: s-a afirmat ca poet “he made his name as a poet”.^[2][12]
3. (logic) To state a relation between a subject and a predicate; to state something as true or false.^[11]
4. (law) To declare something before a court.^[11]

Word family

• afirmativ
• afirmație
• autoafirma
• contraafirmare
• reafirma

Related words

• ferm
• confirma
• infirma

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 18
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. afirma
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. afirma
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. afirma
6. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 16
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 260a
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. no. 87
11. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 24
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 11
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. afirma