Word Confusion: Confidant vs Confidante vs Confident

Posted April 15, 2013 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
30 June 2023

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I’ve been running across this word confusion confidant vs confidante vs confident quite often these days. D’ye reckon it might be the economy that is subliminally influencing writers into wanting a confidant?

Whatever, whyever, confidant/e is one of those words with masculine/feminine endings. There is no e when the word is applied to a man/boy while if the person in whom one is confiding is a woman or a girl, add the e. Or we might get transgender confused . . . Know that these three words are also homonyms.

Confident is more of a state of mind. How a person feels about him- or herself.

What’s that you say? I’m being too picky. Mais oui, I am an editor, LOL. It’s me job, don’cha know!

You may want to explore other masculine-feminine word confusions from the French such as “Fiancé versus Fiancée“, “Blond versus Blonde (which includes Brunet vs Brunette)”, “Chargé d’affaires vs Chargée d’affaires“, “Cher, Chéri versus Chère, Chérie“, “Attach vs Attaché vs Attachée“, “Petit versus Petite“, or “Protégé versus Protégée“.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Confidant	Confidante	Confident
21st Georgia by Virginia State Parks staff is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Confidants kicking back after a day at work.	Hand-painted Fashion Plaque from March 1800; The ladies wear toquer, bag-like hats without the board is courtesy of NordiskaMuseetBot and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — Confidantes sharing a secret.	Senior Office Manager Confident in Office by Direct Media is in the public domain, via Free Range Stock.
Part of Grammar:
Noun Plural: confidants	Noun Plural: confidantes	Adjective; Noun Plural for the noun: confidents
MALE A male person with whom a man or woman shares a secret or private matter, trusting them not to repeat it to others	FEMALE A female person with whom a woman or man shares a secret or private matter, trusting them not to repeat it to others	Adjective: Feeling or showing confidence in oneself Self-assured Feeling or showing certainty about something Noun: [Archaic] A confidant
Examples:
He was her business adviser and confidant. Colonel House, a friend and confidant of President Woodrow Wilson, was at the front door. He became his father’s only confidant. He was the confidant of my joys and hopes.	She was his business adviser and confidante. Mrs House, a friend and confidante of President Woodrow Wilson, was at the front door. She became her father’s only confidante. She was the confidante of my joys and hopes.	Adjective: I was confident that I was capable of driving home. She was a confident dog, for we had trained and loved her well. He was confident that the problem with the guidance mechanism could be fixed. I feel confident about the future of British music. Noun: It was now that I began to realize that those with whom I had been great friends during elementary school were slowly dropping from my side, joining new confidents like the skaters or the Goths. His parents were his closest confidents and friends in a sense, but they were still his parents. They wanted nothing to do with the black market or its confidents.
Derivatives:
		Adjective: hyperconfident, nonconfident Adverb: confidently, hyperconfidently, nonconfidently
History of the Word:
Mid-17th century as an alteration of confident (as a noun in the same sense in the early 17th century), probably to represent the pronunciation of the French confidente meaning having full trusta.		Late 16th century from the French confident(e), which is from the Italian confidente, which is itself from the Latin confident- meaning having full trust, from the verb confidere, which is from con- (expressing intensive force) + fidere (trust).

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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