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Promises, Promises: The History of Affidavit, Affiance, & Fiancé
Affidavit refers to a written promise, and its Latin roots connect it to another kind of promise in English. It comes from a past tense form of the Latin verb affidare, meaning “to pledge”; in Latin, affidavit translates to “he or she has made a pledge.”
Affidare is also the root of affiance, an archaic English noun meaning “trust, faith, confidence,” “marriage contract or promise,” or a meaning that has completely fallen from use, “close or intimate relationship.” More familiar to modern English speakers is the verb affiance, meaning “to promise in marriage” or “to betroth.” It usually appears as a fancy-sounding participial adjective:
I like to give affianced friends a copy of Rebecca Mead’s book “One Perfect Day,” which exposes the ridiculous wedding industry.
—Mollie Hemingway, The Federalist, 7 October 2014
Affiance came through French to English in the 14th century, and, nearly 500 years later, the related French words fiancé and fiancée were added to English. Etymologically speaking, a fiancé or fiancée is a “promised one.”
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Fiancé or fiancée?
People may well be anxious, when referring to their betrothed, to make sure that they use the correct term. So the fact that fiancé and fiancée are pronounced exactly the same may cause some degree of worry and uncertainty. These two words are borrowed directly from French, in which language they have equivalent but gendered meanings: fiancé refers to a man who is engaged to be married, and fiancée refers to a woman. We have, as of this date, no evidence suggesting that the meaning of either word is affected by the gender of the person to whom the fiancé or fiancée is engaged.
Examples of fiancé in a Sentence
Sara Schilling, Sacbee.com, 6 May 2025
Blue Origin is owned by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Sanchez's fiance, and was founded in 2000.
—Madison E. Goldberg, People.com, 16 Apr. 2025
To date, the post has been upvoted more than 28,000 times, resonating with readers who questioned the appropriateness of the fiance's surprise topic of conversation.
—David Faris, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Apr. 2025
Daisy Dove, born in August 2020, is the lone daughter of Perry and her fiance Orlando Bloom — who also shares a 14-year-old son, Flynn Copeland, with his ex-wife, Miranda Kerr.
—Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 31 Mar. 2025
The spotting comes weeks after Sydney was reportedly postponing her wedding to her longtime fiance Jonathan Davino.
—Lea Veloso, StyleCaster, 31 Mar. 2025
Perry will blast off alongside TV host Gayle King as well as Bezos’ fiance Lauren Sanchez.
—Mathew Rodriguez, Them, 27 Feb. 2025
Joining Perry and King are Bezos’ fiance, journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, engineer and NASA veteran Aisha Bowe, activist and scientist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
—Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 14 Apr. 2025
As Abdi went to pay, Hoshi's dad hurriedly got out of his seat and dashed across the restaurant to where her fiance was trying to settle up.
—Gordon G. Chang, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fiancé.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fianc%C3%A9. Accessed 29 May. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
fiancé
noun
from French fiancé "man engaged to be married," derived from early French fiancé, past participle of fiancer "to promise," derived from Latin fidere "to trust" — related to faith
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