Other forms: affidavits
An affidavit is a written statement sworn to be true. Swear an affidavit, file an affidavit, an affidavit in support.
It is signed in front of somebody authorised to administer oaths, and lying in one is perjury. In England and Wales most affidavits have been replaced by witness statements with a statement of truth, which does the same job without the swearing. The word is Medieval Latin for he has sworn, which is a verb doing service as a noun. Note deponent, and sworn statement.
1nounaffidavitA written statement sworn to be true.
“She signed an affidavit saying she had seen the driver run the red light.”
affidavit is a sworn statement.
Medieval Latin affidavit means he has declared on oath, from affidare, to trust — the same fides as in fidelity and confidence. The whole word is a third-person verb form that English adopted as a noun.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰeydʰ- — to command, to persuade, to trust
Medieval Latin
affidavit — he has sworn
English, today
affidavit
Built from
From Medieval Latin affidavit (“he has sworn”), the third person singular perfect tense of affido (“swear”), from fīdō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰeydʰ- (“to command, to persuade, to trust”). Cognate to fidelity and faith (same Latin root), but not to affirm (shared Latin ad- prefix, but different Latin and Proto-Indo-European roots).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA