Avowing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To openly declare a belief or opinion, while also affirming a specific conviction and admitting to a particular stance without hesitation
2. Expressing a belief or opinion openly and without concealment
3. Making a clear, public statement about a conviction or view

Etymology: "Avowing" is the present participle of "avow", and the verb carries a legal sense that its modern meaning has largely left behind. It came into Middle English as "avowen" from Old French "avouer", which in turn descends from Latin "advocare", meaning "to call to" or "to call upon." The Latin sense ran toward summoning someone as a witness or defender, and that legal flavour of calling on another party to stand behind you survived in the English word long after the everyday sense of publicly declaring a belief took over. The surprise lies in its family. "Avow" is a doublet of "advocate", "avouch", and "advoke", meaning that all four words split from the same Latin root but reached English by different routes, so a person who avows a view is, etymologically, calling on that view to stand up as a witness on their behalf. The word has no connection to "vow", despite the similar sound, which is a common confusion.

Synonyms: affirming, declaring, asserting

Antonyms: denying, disavowing, repudiating