confederate

See also: Confederate

English

Alternative forms

• confœderate (obsolete)

Etymology 1

First attested in 1387, in Middle english; inherited from Middle English confederat(e) (“confederated, allied, associated in a plot; united or bound, as in friendship or troth”), borrowed from Late Latin cōnfoederātus perfect passive participle of cōnfoederō, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix). Regular participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English. By surface analysis, con- +‎ federate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛdəɹət/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

confederate (comparative more confederate, superlative most confederate)

1. Of, relating to, or united in a confederacy
2. Banded together; allied.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

     All the swords / In Italy, and her confederate arms, / Could not have made this peace.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Youth's Antiphony, lines 11-12:

     Hour after hour, remote from the world's throng,
     Work, contest, fame, all life's confederate pleas

3. (obsolete or archaic, as a participle) Confederated.
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 43, column 1:

     Remember as thou read'ſt, thy promiſe paſt :
     I do repent me, reade not my name there,
     My heart is not confederate with my hand.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 7:2:

     And it was told the house of Dauid, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim: and his heart was moued, and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are mooued with the wind.

Derived terms

• Confederate
• Confederate flag
• confederately
• Confederate States
• Confederate States of America
• nonconfederate

Translations

of, relating to, or united in a confederacy

• Bulgarian: , конфедеративен (konfederativen)
• Spanish: confederado (es) m

banded together; allied

Noun

confederate (plural confederates)

1. A member of a confederacy.

   Synonym: ally

2. An accomplice in a plot.

   Synonym: conspirator

   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 98, column 2:

     By'th'vvay, vve met my vvife, her ſiſter, and a rabble more
     Of vilde confederates : […]

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     He found some of his confederates in gaol.

   • 2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid‎^[1], Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 59:

     These are replete with references to [...] slaves who typically absconded in well-organized groups, often with a light-skinned confederate who posed as their owner until they reached freedom.

   1. (psychology) An actor who participates in a psychological experiment pretending to be a subject but in actuality working for the researcher.

      Synonym: stooge

      • 2011 March 18, David Leavitt, “I Took the Turing Test”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

        So how do you win the imitation game? “Just be yourself,” a past confederate advises Christian. But what does it mean to “be yourself”?

Derived terms

• Confederate
• confederateship
• confederatism

Translations

a member of a confederacy

• Armenian: դաշնակից (hy) (dašnakicʻ)
• Bulgarian: , участник в конфедерация (učastnik v konfederacija), съюзен (bg) (săjuzen), съюзнически (săjuzničeski)
• Catalan: confederat m, confederada f
• French: confédéré (fr) m, confédérée (fr) f
• German: Konföderierter (de) m, Konföderierte (de) pl or f
• Russian: конфедера́т (ru) m (konfederát), конфедера́тка (ru) f (konfederátka)

an accomplice in a plot

• Bulgarian: заговорник (bg) (zagovornik), съучастник (bg) (săučastnik)
• Russian: соуча́стник (ru) (součástnik), соо́бщник (ru) (soóbščnik)

an actor in an experiment

• Russian: подставное лицо́ (podstavnoje licó)

Etymology 2

First attested in 1531; borrowed from Late Latin cōnfoederātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Doublet of (obsolete) confeder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈfɛdəɹeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

confederate (third-person singular simple present confederates, present participle confederating, simple past and past participle confederated)

1. (ambitransitive) To unite persons or states in a league, confederacy or conspiracy; to ally, league.
   • 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “III. The Persians”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 89:

     With them the gods were confederated to break barbarian arrogance.

   • 1958, Parliament of Victoria, “Part I, Division 1, section 4”, in Crimes Act 1958‎^[3], archived from the original on 23 May 2023, page 806:

     All persons who conspire confederate and agree to murder any person whether a subject of Her Majesty or not and whether within the Queen's dominions or not, […] shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than ten years.

Derived terms

• confederater
• confederative
• confederator
• unconfederated

Translations

to unite, combine persons or states in a confederacy

• Catalan: confederar (ca)
• French: confédérer (fr)

Related terms

• confeder
• Confederacy
• confederacy
• Confederado
• confederal
• confederalism
• confederalist
• Confederation
• confederation
• defederate
• federal
• federate
• federator
• fedifragous
• refederate

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective

confederate f pl

1. feminine plural of confederato

Participle

confederate f pl

1. feminine plural of confederato

Etymology 2

Noun

confederate f pl

1. plural of confederata

Etymology 3

Verb

confederate

1. inflection of confederare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Spanish

Verb

confederate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of confederar combined with te