the use of "confiteor"

te dominum confitemur

Seeing the above sentence, I saw dictionary (Lewis & Short) about “confiteor”.
And I found the ecclesiastical usage defined “to confess, own, acknowledge”.
And there was a sample sentence similar to the above quoted sentence : “Christum”.
But I don’t understand “confiteor Christum”. What does it mean ? “I acknowledge Christ (in any manner, or, as my lord)” ?
I am Japanese, but do you say “I confess Christ” in English ? If so, what does it mean ? Does it mean “I confess that I believe in Christ (or, there is Christ)” ?

Ego Christum confiteor labiis et corde non cessabo invocare dominum
http://cantusdatabase.org/id/002568

TE DEUM laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.
O GOD, we praise Thee: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Trinitas/TeDeum.html

Yes, I thought “I acknowledge you to be the lord” would be its meaning, complementing “esse” betweeen “te” and “dominum”.

te (esse) Dominum confitemur

But this sentence is right after “te Deum laudamus”, where “te” and “Deum” are apposited, not with “esse” hiding between them.

And I don’t understand and can’t translate the Lewis & Short’s sample “confiteor Christum”.

Confiteor Christum [subauditum: esse Deum, unum cum Patre]
“I acknowledge Christ [implicitly: in union with[/as one with] the Father, to be God]”

“Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur.”
“We praise you as [our] God; we acknowledge you as our/the Lord.”

confiteor is a transitive verb and hence takes an accusative direct object.

Thank you.

Under the heading where “confiteor” is defined as “(in ecclesiastic writings) to confess, own, acknowledge”, are we supposed to choose any one of “confess” or “own” or “acknowledge” according to the context ? Or, is there any common notion that includes all “confess”, “own”, “acknowledge” ?

This is a problem that always puzzles me in consulting Lewis & Short when it presents a word’s definition in such a way.




Adrianus, as you advised me, I am working on a medieval song “Te Deum” for a diversion.
I also bought Asterix in Latin, ‘Iter Gallicum’. Contradictory to my expectation, the sentences are all rather long, so when I would read ‘Iter Gallicum’, it might be rather a little laborious work than a mere diversion.

The word “confess” in English covers them all. “I confess Christ” is just a very archaic expression, or “all they that do confess thy holy Name” (http://www.libcci.org/lectionary.htm).
“Confess” verbum anglicum omnes illarum interpretationum affert, etsi modo antiquo anglicè “I confess Christ” in dicendo.

Yes. I finally took out my heavy English-Japanese dictionary, in which I could find such a usage. I could also find there that “own” has an archaic usage which is the same as “acknowledge”.

From the next time, I will check first this heavy and hard-to-lift-up dictionary before asking people here.

I don’t know how much you paid for it but your dictionary sounds like it may pay for itself.

Nescio quanti ei pependeris. Verè id dignum pretio est, dictionarium tuum, ut mihi videtur.

No, no, it’s cheaper than Lewis & Short. But it is huge.