confident
English
Etymology
From Middle French confident, from Latin confidens (“confident, i.e. self-confident, in a good or bad sense, bold, daring, audacious, impudent”), present participle of confidere (“to trust fully, confide”). See confide.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒnfɪdənt/, [ˈkʰɔɱ.fɪ.dənt], [-dn̩t]
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑnfɪdənt/, [ˈkʰɑɱ.fə.dənt], [-dn̩t]
Audio (US): (file)
- (Indic) IPA(key): /ˈkɔnfɪɖəɳʈ/, /kənfɪˈɖɛɳʈ/
- Hyphenation: con‧fi‧dent
Adjective
confident (comparative more confident, superlative most confident)
- Very sure of something; positive.
- I'm pretty confident that she's not lying, she's acting normally.
- He was confident of success.
- Self-assured, self-reliant, sure of oneself.
- (obsolete, derogatory) Forward, impudent.
- 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, I.2:
- I was rated as the most confident ruffian, for daring to approach her room at that hour of night.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
being very sure of or positive about something
|
self-confident — see self-confident
Noun
confident (plural confidents)
- Obsolete form of confidant.
- 1684, John Dryden, The History of the League, translation of Histoire de la Ligue by Louis Maimbourg:
- He managed this consultation with exceeding secrecy, admitting only four or five of his confidents, on whom he most relied
- 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
- a certain Lawyer , a great Confident of the Rebels
Further reading
- “confident”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “confident”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Catalan
Etymology
From Latin cōnfīdēns. In the sense of "courting bench", a semantic loan from French.
Pronunciation
Adjective
confident m or f (masculine and feminine plural confidents)
Noun
confident m or f by sense (plural confidents)
Noun
confident m (plural confidents)
- tête-à-tête (s-shaped love seat)
Related terms
Further reading
- “confident”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian confidente
Pronunciation
Noun
confident m (plural confidents, feminine confidente)
- confidant
- tête-à-tête (love seat in an s-shape)
Related terms
Descendants
- → Catalan: confident (calque)
Further reading
- “confident”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
Latin
Verb
cōnfīdent
- third-person plural future active indicative of cōnfīdō
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French confident.
Noun
confident m (plural confidenți, feminine equivalent confidentă)
Declension
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||
| nominative-accusative | confident | confidentul | confidenti | confidentii | |
| genitive-dative | confident | confidentului | confidenti | confidentilor | |
| vocative | confidentule | confidentilor | |||