affirmation
(æfəˈmeɪʃən)
[a. Fr. affirmation (14th c. Godef.), ad. L. affirmātiōn-em n. of action f. affirmā -re: see affirm.]
The action of affirming.
1. The action of confirming anything established; confirmation, ratification (esp. of laws).
| a 1533 J. Frith Answ. Bp. Rochester k 2 (R.) For a more vehement affyrmacyon he doubleth his owne wordes. 1645 Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1738 I. 246 To establish by Law a thing wholly unlawful and dishonest, is an affirmation was never heard of before. 1860 Forster Grand Remonstr. 2 The Petition of Right..was but the affirmation and re-enactment of the precedents of three foregoing centuries. |
2. The action of asserting or declaring true; assertion. esp. assertion in the affirmative, as opposed to the negative.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. i. iv. 63 This gentleman, at that time vouching, (and vpon warrant of bloody affirmation,) his [mistress] to be more Faire. 1743 Tindal tr. Rapin's Hist. VII. xvii. 127 Whether more credit were to be given to her bare negation than to their affirmation. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 11 Instead of Denial and Destruction, we were to have a science of Affirmation and Reconstruction. 1872 Darwin Emotions xi. 273 A single nod implies an affirmation. |
3. Logic. ‘A positive judgment, implying the union or junction of the terms of a proposition’ (Encycl. Brit.); predication.
| 1656 tr. Hobbes's Elem. Philos. (1839) 23 Abstract names proceed from proposition, and can have no place where there is no affirmation. 1788 Reid Aristotle's Logic i. §4. 14 Affirmation is the enunciation of one thing concerning another. 1877 E. Conder Basis of Faith iv. 161 A judgment is an assertion, affirmative or negative. Affirmation and denial are as the opposite motions of the same wheel; the extensor and contractor muscles of the same limb. |
4. The words in which anything is asserted; an assertion, declaration, or positive statement.
| a 1593 H. Smith Wks. (1867) II. 63 Paul's affirmation, who saith, ‘Such as the root is, such are the branches.’ 1651 Hobbes Leviathan i. iv. 17 It be a false affirmation to say a quadrangle is round. 1876 J. Parker Paraclete ii. xviii. 324 The bold affirmation that we have no sensation of efficiency is probably best met by a bold affirmation to the exact contrary. |
5. Law. A formal and solemn declaration, having the same weight and invested with the same responsibilities as an oath, by persons who conscientiously decline taking an oath.
| 1695 Act 7 & 8 Will. III, xxxiv, Every Quaker..shall instead of the usual Forme be permitted to make his or her Solemne Affirmation or Declaracion. 1745 De Foe Eng. Tradesm. I. xvi. 138 To be examined on oath, or if a quaker on affirmation. 1878 Lecky Eng. in 18th Cent. II. vii. 427 Giving their affirmation the value of an oath. |