[Ads-l] The President conversates:

[Baker, John]

Confirm n. is of long standing in the investment community, where a securities confirmation is typically referred to as a "confirm."  (SEC rule 10b-10 requires a brokerage firm to provide a written confirmation whenever a customer buys or sells a stock, bond, or other security.)  I'm not going to try to search for examples, since it's too hard for a search to differentiate confirm n. from confirm v., but certainly it was by no means new 30 years ago.  This is an informal usage, so written materials are more likely to use the formal "confirmation."

I've also heard nounal "confirm" to refer to definite positive responses to an invitation, as in "we have 31 confirms, 7 maybes, and 18 noes for the big meeting next month."

I suppose it is predictable that confirm n. has the accent on the first syllable, while confirm v. has the accent on the second syllable.  No doubt someone can explain why this is the case.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 9:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: The President conversates:

A check stub cautions me that the document will be "the only confirm" that
I receive.

JL

On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 8:49 PM, Margaret Winters <mewinters at wayne.edu>
wrote:

> As a noun, 'ask'  is common in fund-raising/development circles - the
> request for a donation.
>
>
> ----------------------------
> MARGARET E WINTERS
> Professor Emerita
> French and Linguistics
> Wayne State University
> Detroit, MI  48202
>
> mewinters at wayne.edu
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2017 8:23 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: The President conversates:
>
> "I do have one final _ask_ of you as your President..."
>
> That's right up there with
>
> "5 blogs worth your _follow_."
>
>
> As a Canadian buddy says, "What the hell, eh?"
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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