English
confident
Confident comes from Middle French confident, from Latin cōnfīdēns ‘confident, bold’, present participle of cōnfīdō ‘to trust fully’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnfīdōas confidere, present participle‘to trust fully, confide’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnfīdēns‘confident, bold’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600confident
- Englishearliest quotation 1684confident
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnfīdōas confidere, present participle‘to trust fully, confide’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnfīdēns‘confident, bold’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600confident
- Englishearliest quotation 1684confident
Earliest quotation: 1684, John Dryden, The History of the League: “He managed this consultation with exceeding secrecy, admitting only…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰeydʰ- ‘to trust’
federal, federation, defy, confederate, defiance, fidelity, bode, foi, fealty, infidel, perfidy, 29 more
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydʰeti ‘to trust’
through Latin fīdō ‘trust’
Today it means
adj Very sure of something; positive.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin cōnfīdō / confident