Bekäftelse

Bekäftelse is a term found in some Scandinavian languages, used to denote the act of confirming, attesting, or certifying something. In modern Swedish and Norwegian, standard forms bekräftelse (Swedish) or bekräftelse (Danish/Norwegian) are more common, while bekäftelse appears primarily as an archaic or regional spelling. The word shares its roots with verbs meaning to confirm or acknowledge, and it occurs mainly in historical documents, legal texts, church records, and administrative writings.

In practice, bekäftelse refers to an attestation or certificate issued by an authority to verify a fact, such as the receipt of a document, the authenticity of a record, or the confirmation of a person’s status. In ecclesiastical contexts it could denote certification by a church authority regarding sacraments or membership. In civil administration it might appear in connection with baptismal, marriage, or death records, often affixed with a seal or signature to mark verification.

Today, bekäftelse is seldom used outside philological, historical, or archival contexts; the modern equivalents are bekräftelse or bekräftelse. The term thus survives mainly as a historical spelling variant found in older texts and scholarly discussions of at least some Nordic legal and clerical traditions.

In summary, bekäftelse denotes the act or document of attestation, primarily in historical usage, related to but distinct from the contemporary terms bekräftelse and bekräftelse.