asseveration

plural asseverations

1. countableuncountableAn earnest affirmation; a declaration of support.

   […] no man is believ’d a jot the more for all the Aſſeverations, Damnings and Swearings he makes: […]

   1693 (date written), D. F. [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], An Essay upon Projects, London: […] R. R. for Tho[mas] Cockerill, […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 240

   4 more examples

   Custom-houſe oaths and political oaths are but little regarded even by ſome who pretend to principles of honeſty and religion: and a Quaker’s aſſeveration is with us juſtly put upon the ſame footing with the oath of any other perſon.

   a. 1777, David Hume, part XII, inDialogues Concerning Natural Religion, [London?], published 1779, page 146

   […] on all such occasions Mr. Grimwig plants, fishes, and carpenters with great ardour, doing everything in a very singular and unprecedented manner; but always maintaining, with his favourite asseveration, that his mode is the right one.

   1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “And Last”, in Oliver Twist; […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 310

   The true oath consists in the simple asseveration, uttered in perfect consciousness and under a sense of the presence of God, before Him, and in Him.

   1861, J[ohann] P[eter] Lange, translated by Alfred Edersheim, Theological and Homiletical Commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew. Specially Designed and Adapted for the Use of Ministers and Students., volume I, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […]; London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.; Dublin: John Robertson, page 228

   After this homily which he delivered with much warmth of asseveration Mr Mulligan in a trice put off from his hat a kerchief with which he had shielded it.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 385

   Synonyms: averment, avowal