different between profess vs asseverate

English

Etymology

From Old French professer, and its source, the participle stem of Latin profit?r?, from pro- + fat?r? (“to confess, acknowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???f?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Verb

profess (third-person singular simple present professes, present participle professing, simple past and past participle professed)

1. (transitive) To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.) [from 14th c.]
   • 2000, Butler's Lives of the Saints, p.118:

     This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.

2. (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something). [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Alex Needham, The Guardian, 9 Dec.:

     Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor […].

3. (transitive, intransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, First Folio 1623:

     He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice […].

   • 1974, ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time, 11 Feb 1974:

     The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.
4. (transitive) To make a claim (to be something); to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity. [from 16th c.]
   • 2010, Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian, 28 Sep 2010:

     Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.
5. (transitive) To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.). [from 16th c.]
   • 1983, Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India, Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:

     The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.

6. (transitive) To work as a professor of; to teach. [from 16th c.]
7. (transitive, now rare) To claim to have knowledge or understanding of (a given area of interest, subject matter). [from 16th c.]

Translations

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From Latin assev?r?re, from assev?r? (“I assert”).

Verb

asseverate (third-person singular simple present asseverates, present participle asseverating, simple past and past participle asseverated)

1. (transitive) To declare earnestly, seriously, or positively; to affirm.
   • 1642, Sir Richard Gurney, 1st Baronet, The Lord Maior of Londons Letter to the King at Yorke, June 22, London,^[1]

     Whereas Your Maiesty hath received true information of great sums of Money endeavoured to be borrowed of Your City of London, by directions proceeding from both Houses of Parliament […] (I Your Maiesties faithfull Subiect) doe conceive, and dare asseverate, that it is intended upon no other pretence then for the Honour and defence of Your Maiesty,

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Dublin: John Smith, Volume 2, Book 10, Chapter 7, p. 261,^[2]

     I will myself asseverate and bind it by an Oath, that the Muff thou bearest in thy Hand belonged unto Madam Sophia;

   • 1818, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, Volume 1, Chapter 9, p. 195-196,^[3]

     “And I presume you can also asseverate to his worship, that no man is better qualified than I am to bear testimony in this case, seeing that I was by you, and near you, constantly during the whole occurrence?”

   • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, The Whisperer in Darkness, chapter 1:

     The more I laughed at such theories, the more these stubborn friends asseverated them; adding that even without the heritage of legend the recent reports were too clear, consistent, detailed, and sanely prosaic in manner of telling, to be completely ignored.

   • 1971, Iris Murdoch, The Accidental Man, New York: Viking, p. 31,^[4]

     A time would come, Mr. Secombe-Hughes mysteriously asseverated, when all would be well and she would get her money.

Derived terms

• asseverative

Related terms

• asseveration

Translations

Italian

Verb

asseverate

1. second-person plural present indicative of asseverare
2. second-person plural imperative of asseverare

Participle

asseverate

1. feminine plural of the past participle of asseverare

Latin

Pronunciation

• assev?r?t?: (Classical) IPA^(key): /as.se.u?e??ra?.te?/, [äs???u?e???ä?t?e?]
• assev?r?t?: (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /as.se.ve?ra.te/, [?s??v?????t??]
• assev?r?te: (Classical) IPA^(key): /as.se.u?e??ra?.te/, [äs???u?e???ä?t??]
• assev?r?te: (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /as.se.ve?ra.te/, [?s??v?????t??]

Adverb

assev?r?t? (not comparable)

1. earnestly, emphatically

Alternative forms

• adsev?r?t?

Verb

assev?r?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of assev?r?

References

• asseverate in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)