Other forms: reaffirmed, reaffirming, reaffirms
To reaffirm something is to state again that it still stands. Nothing has changed, and here is the confirmation.
It belongs to diplomacy and to official statements, where governments reaffirm commitments and boards reaffirm confidence in somebody, usually about a week before removing them. That is the quiet joke of the word, since public reaffirmation is often the last stage before a reversal. It takes a that-clause or a noun. The noun is reaffirmation and the plain verb affirm means to state positively.
1verbreaffirmTo state again that something remains true or in force.
“The minister reaffirmed the commitment to the timetable.”
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰer-
Latin
affirmare
Old French
afermer
Middle English
affermen
English
affirm
English, today
reaffirm
Built from
From re- + affirm. affirm comes from Middle English affermen, from Old French afermer, affermer, from Latin affirmare, adfirmare (“to present as fixed, aver, affirm”), from ad (“to”) + firmare (“to make firm”), from firmus (“firm”). by surface analysis, af- + firm.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA