authenticate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin authenticātus, the past participle of authenticō (“to make authentic”), with the English verb ending -ate,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from the 13th century in British and continental sources.^[2] The Latin verb is from Late Latin authenticus (“genuine”),^{[6][8][4][3][5]} which the OED calls classical,^[2] the source of authentic.^[2][3] That adjective is from Ancient Greek αὐθεντικός (authentikós), from αὐθέντης (authéntēs, “one acting on one's own authority”).^[3][9] The OED compares Old French autenticier (about 1260) and authentiquer (1316), Spanish autenticar (first half of the 13th century), Portuguese autenticar (13th century) and Italian autenticare (early 14th century).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An adjective authenticate, authentic or authenticated, is recorded first, from 1541 in the Schole House of Women to 1656.^[2] The verb, to give legal validity to, follows in 1555, in a text printed in Hakluyt's Principall Navigations.^[2][4] Other dictionaries date it later: Dictionary.com to 1565–75, the Oxford Dictionary of English to the early 17th century and Etymonline to the 1650s.^[7][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The first uses are legal and institutional: to give validity (1555) and to invest with authority (1608).^[2] In 1612–13 the verb moved to statements and reputed facts, which one could prove true.^[2] Its use for establishing a document or an artwork as genuine, the core of the modern word, is from 1661,^[2] although the Shorter Oxford places it in the mid 19th century.^[8] The construction with as dates from 1753 and that with a that-clause from 1782.^[2] Computing added a new object, the identity of a user or process, from 1977, in Computerworld, and an intransitive use from 1993, in which a user or process has its identity verified.^[2] The noun authentication appears in the late 18th century, and authenticator in the mid 19th.^[8]

Timeline

• 1541 – adjective, authentic, authenticated (obsolete by 1656).^[2]
• 1555 – to give legal validity to, to establish as valid.^[2][4]
• 1608 – to invest with authority.^[2]
• 1612 – to prove the truth of a statement or account.^[2]
• 1613 – to confirm that a reputed fact really occurred.^[2]
• 1661 – to establish a document or artwork as genuine.^[2]
• 1753 – with as, to verify something as what it is supposed to be.^[2]
• 1782 – with a that-clause, to prove or verify.^[2]
• 1977 – in computing, to verify the identity of a user or process.^[2]
• 1993 – in computing, intransitive, to have one's identity verified.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To establish something, such as a document or artwork, as genuine: Two experts authenticated the letter.^[10][2][8]
2. To prove the truth of a statement or reported event; to verify.^[2][8][4]
3. To give legal validity to.^[10][4][2]
4. To give authority to; to make authoritative.^[10][4][2]
5. (computing) To verify the identity of a user or process; also, of a user or process, to have its identity verified.^[2]

Word family

• authentication
• authenticator
• authenticatable
• unauthenticated
• reauthenticate
• self-authenticating

Related words

• authentic
• authenticity

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins