[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, enacted in Charles the First’s reign, 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. Shaks., Cymb., I. iv. 63. This gentleman, at that time vouching, (and vpon warrant of bloody affirmation) his [mistress] to be more Faire.
1743. Tindal, trans. 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. trans. 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.
