certify

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English certifien, also certefien,^[2] borrowed from Old French certifier (“to make certain, witness the truth of”), in the 13th century certefier,^[3][4][5][6] from Late Latin certificō (“to make certain”),^[5][4][6][7] which the OED and Collins call medieval Latin.^[3][8] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1283–85, meaning to guarantee the truth of something, to send an attested copy and to inform.^[9] The Latin verb is formed from certus (“fixed, sure”) and -ficō, from faciō (“to make, do”);^[4][10][3] Barnhart assumes a lost adjective *certificus in between.^[11] Etymonline traces faciō to Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[4] The same Latin adjective is the source of certain.^[4][5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make a thing certain, to guarantee it as certain or attest it with authority: 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle,^[3] which Barnhart dates before 1338.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary's first sense is to declare something true, to affirm, with quotations from Mannyng and Gower.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Middle English also used the verb for "to make a person sure of something, to assure, inform" (1340, in Rolle's Pricke of Conscience),^[3] and Etymonline adds the senses "give notice to, instruct, direct, designate".^[4] The formal sense, to attest by a certificate, appears in the Paston Letters in 1462.^[3] Johnson (1755) still gave "to give certain information of" as its first meaning, quoting Bacon on ambassadors who "certified the king".^[12] The 19th century added legal and official uses: to convey land by certification (1845, American), to guarantee a cheque (1864, American banking) and to declare a person insane (1877),^[3] which Collins and the Concise Oxford list as an informal British use.^[8][13] The modern sense of officially recognizing a person or product as meeting a standard is recorded in the American Heritage Dictionary and the Concise Oxford.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1330 – to make certain, guarantee as true, attest.^[3][11]
• 1340 – to assure or inform a person with certainty.^[3]
• 1462 – to attest by a formal certificate.^[3]
• 1625 – intransitive, to testify, vouch for, in Bacon.^[3]
• 1845 – to convey land by certification, American.^[3]
• 1864 – to certify a cheque, American banking.^[3]
• 1877 – to declare a person officially insane.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To confirm formally that something is true, accurate or genuine, usually in writing; to attest: The auditor certified the accounts.^[8][5][14]
2. To guarantee that something meets a required standard: certified organic produce.^[5][8]
3. To recognize someone officially as qualified, often by issuing a certificate.^[13][15]
4. Of a bank, to state on a cheque that payment is guaranteed.^[5][8][3]
5. (informal, chiefly British) To declare someone legally insane.^[8][13][3]

Word family

• certifier
• precertify
• recertify
• certifiable
• decertify

Related words

• certification
• certain
• certificate
• -fy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press