Other forms: confirmations
Confirmation is proof that something is true, or word that it is definitely going ahead. The email saying your seat is booked, the call from the surgery with a test result, the text that says yes, seven o'clock still works.
It nearly always takes OF: confirmation of the booking, confirmation of his death. In a church, a confirmation is the ceremony where a young person confirms the faith they were baptised into, with a new suit, a bishop's hand on the head, photographs on the steps and, in Sweden, a party with presents. In politics it is the vote that approves somebody for a post. Confirmation bias, borrowed from psychology, is the habit of noticing only the facts that agree with you. The verb is confirm, and confirmed can mean settled for good, as in a confirmed bachelor.
1nounproofProof or a statement showing that something is true or certain.
“We are still waiting for confirmation of the numbers.”
synonyms: proof, verification
2nounmessageA message or document saying that a booking, order or arrangement is definite.
“Print the confirmation and bring it to the desk.”
3nounconfirmationA Christian ceremony in which a baptised young person confirms their faith and is accepted as a full member of the church.
“She wore her mother's dress for her confirmation.”
4nounofficialAn official vote or decision approving someone for a post.
“His confirmation as chief justice took three weeks.”
confirmation is a form of proof.
Confirmation is Latin all the way down: confirmatio, from confirmo, which is con-, 'with', plus firmo, 'to firm or strengthen'. It travelled through Old French confirmacion and Middle English confirmacioun with barely a scratch. Confirming something is making it firm, and the root behind firmo is about holding steady, which is what the church ceremony and the booking email are both doing.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰer-
Latin
cōnfirmātiō
Old French
confirmacion
Middle English
confirmacioun
English, today
confirmation
Built from
From Middle English confirmacioun, from Old French confirmacion, from Latin cōnfirmātiō, noun of process from cōnfirmātus (“confirmed”), perfect passive participle of confirmo, from con- (“with”) + firmo (“to firm or strengthen”). Morphologically confirm + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA