different between affirm vs qualify

English

Etymology

From Middle English affirmen, 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”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??f?m/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??f??m/
• Rhymes: -??(?)m

Verb

affirm (third-person singular simple present affirms, present participle affirming, simple past and past participle affirmed)

1. To agree, verify or concur; to answer positively.

   She affirmed that she would go when I asked her.

2. To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to aver; to maintain as true.
3. To support or encourage.

   They did everything they could to affirm the children's self-confidence.

4. To make firm; to confirm, or ratify; especially (law) to assert or confirm, as a judgment, decree, or order, brought before an appellate court for review.

Synonyms

• validate

Antonyms

• disaffirm
• deny (of 1,2)
• repudiate (of 2)
• invalidate (of 4)

Related terms

• affirmation
• affirmative

Translations

See also

• affirmative action
• confirm

Further reading

• affirm in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• affirm in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• affirm at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kw?l.?.fa?/, enPR: kw?l??-f?
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kw?l.?.fa?/, enPR: kw?l??-f?
• Hyphenation: qual?i?fy

Verb

qualify (third-person singular simple present qualifies, present participle qualifying, simple past and past participle qualified)

1. To describe or characterize something by listing its qualities.
2. To make someone, or to become competent or eligible for some position or task.
3. To certify or license someone for something.
4. To modify, limit, restrict or moderate something; especially to add conditions or requirements for an assertion to be true.
   • 1598, Shakespeare, Sonnet 109

     O! never say that I was false of heart,

     Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify

5. (now rare) To mitigate, alleviate (something); to make less disagreeable.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     he balmes and herbes thereto applyde, / And euermore with mighty spels them charmd, / That in short space he has them qualifyde, / And him restor'd to health, that would haue algates dyde.

6. To compete successfully in some stage of a competition and become eligible for the next stage.
7. To give individual quality to; to modulate; to vary; to regulate.
8. (juggling) To throw and catch each object at least twice.

Antonyms

• unqualify

Related terms

• disqualify
• qualification
• qualifier

Translations

Noun

qualify

1. (juggling) An instance of throwing and catching each prop at least twice.