confirma

Forms

confirma (third-person singular present confirmă, past participle confirmat, third-person subjunctive confirme) 1st conjugation^[1] An older present confirmez occurs in Bălcescu, and Negulici (1848) gives both confirm and confirmez.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French confirmer.^[4][5][6][7] DELR, DEX, MDN and Tiktin also name borrowed from Latin cōnfirmō, a learned loan in the Latin of the period.^[4][5][6][7] DELR adds German konfirmieren as a possible source.^[4][5][6][7] MDA2 gives French alone, and the DA calls it a neologism from French.^[8][9] The Latin verb is formed on con- and firmō (“to strengthen, encourage, confirm”), from firmus (“strong, solid”).^[4][10] The French verb was itself borrowed from Latin around 980.^[11]

An older verb confirmălui came from the German verb, adapted on the model of the derivatives in -ălui, or from Hungarian, as DELR reports.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1735 and lists the obsolete form confirmălui.^[7] DELR dates confirmălui “to confirm” to 1735 and confirma itself to a calendar printed in Vienna in 1794, with the senses “to acknowledge as true”, “to confirm a person or an act” and the Catholic rite.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Pontbriant (1862) gives it with the Latin model and the senses “to assure, certify, ratify”.^[12] Șăineanu gives the senses to make firmer, to bring stronger proof and to ratify a law, and in the law courts to uphold the judgment of a lower court.^[13][9] A person is also confirmed in a post given provisionally.^[9]

In church use it is the Catholic rite of confirmație, and among Protestants the first communion after religious instruction.^[9][7] In law it also means to waive the right to have an act annulled, and in sport to reach a set standard.^[8]

Timeline

• 1717-1723 – confirmație in Cantemir's chronicle.^[4]
• 1735 – the first record according to Tiktin;^[7][4] confirmălui the same year.^[7][4]
• 1794 – confirma in a Vienna calendar.^[4]
• 1848 – confirmativ “confirming” in Negulici.^[4]
• 1897 – reconfirma “to confirm again”.^[4]
• 1936 – confirmand “candidate for confirmation”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To confirm: to acknowledge and support the truth of a statement, to corroborate a hypothesis: Martorul a confirmat declarația.^[5][8]
2. (law) To give up the right to have a legal act annulled, so recognising its effects; to uphold the judgment of a lower court.^[5]
3. To make someone's appointment to a post or position final.^[5][8]
4. (Catholic Church) To administer the rite of confirmation.^[5]

Word family

• confirmand
• confirmativ
• confirmație
• reconfirma
• confirmare

Related words

• afirma
• infirma
• ferm

Usage notes

The reflexive a se confirma “to prove true” is used of news.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 520
3. ^ Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. confirma
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 220
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. confirma
7. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. confirma
8. ^ 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, 484
9. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. confirma
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 148
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 158