Glossary
Affirmed
An appellate court's ruling that the lower court got it right. The original judgment stays in place. The appellant loses the appeal.
If the appellate court affirms, nothing changes for the parties. The trial court's judgment stands as if the appeal never happened: except that the issue is now usually settled and can't be appealed again on the same grounds.
The vast majority of civil appeals are affirmed. Trial courts get a presumption of correctness on most issues, and appellate courts only reverse when they find a real legal error that affected the outcome.