confidence
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English confidence, from Latin cōnfīdentia (possibly via Old French confidence), from cōnfīdō (“believe, confide in”) from con- (“with”) + fīdō (“trust”).
Morphologically confide + -ence.
Pronunciation
Noun
confidence (countable and uncountable, plural confidences)
- Self-assurance.
- A feeling of certainty; firm trust or belief; faith.
- I tell you this in the strictest confidence.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalms 118:8–9:
- It is better to truſt in the Lord : then to put confidence in man. / It is better to truſt in the Lord : then to put confidence in Princes.
- 1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 39:
- Khedron hesitated for a moment, wondering how far he should take Jeserac into his confidence. He knew that Jeserac was kindly and well-intentioned, but he also knew that he must be bound by the same taboos that controlled everyone on Diaspar.
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
- But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
- Information held in secret; a piece of information shared but to thence be kept in secret.
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I, page 201:
- In the course of these confidences it became quite plain to me I had been represented to the wife of the high dignitary, and goodness knows to how many more people besides, as an exceptional and gifted creature - a piece of good fortune for the Company - a man you don’t get hold of every day.
- (dated) Boldness; presumption.
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “self-assurance”): timidity, shyness, bashfulness, insecurity
Derived terms
- confidence and supply
- confidence artist
- confidence course
- confidence game
- confidence interval
- confidence level
- confidence limits
- confidence man
- confidence motion
- confidence trick
- confidence trickster
- confidence vote
- e-confidence
- honfidence
- inconfidence
- in confidence
- misconfidence
- motion of confidence
- motion of no confidence
- no-confidence motion
- no-confidence vote
- nonconfidence
- overconfidence
- self-confidence
- superconfidence
- unconfidence
- underconfidence
- vote of confidence
- vote of no confidence
Related terms
Translations
self-assurance
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expression or feeling of certainty
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quality of trusting
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information held in secret
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
References
confidence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin cōnfīdentia. Doublet of confiance.
Pronunciation
Noun
confidence f (plural confidences)
Related terms
Further reading
- “confidence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.