validate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin validātus, the past participle of validō (“to make valid”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin validus (“strong, effective, powerful”), the source of valid,^[3][4][7] from valeō (“to be strong”),^[3][8] from Proto-Indo-European *wal- (“to be strong”).^[3][8] The OED notes the Medieval Latin verb in 1394, in Du Cange, and allows that the English verb may also follow French valider, recorded from 1586, like Spanish validar, Portuguese validar and Italian validare.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make or declare legally valid; to confirm the validity of an act, contract or deed: before 1648, in Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII.^[2] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the verb to the 1640s,^[3][5] Merriam-Webster to 1648.^[4]

Semantic evolution

An adjective validate, valid or validated, appears in Scotland in 1586, in the Register of the Privy Council.^[2] The verb's first sense was legal; from 1659 it was also used of declaring an election valid or a person duly elected, a use the OED ties to the French verb.^[2] From 1775 it took the general sense of confirming, corroborating or substantiating something,^[2][9] and Merriam-Webster also records the granting of official sanction by marking a document such as a passport.^[10][11] In the 20th century it gained two newer senses: in statistics, to examine something for incorrectness or bias (1957), and, originally in psychology, to make a person feel valued, or to affirm that their feelings and opinions are worthwhile (1951).^[2]

Timeline

• 1586 – adjective, valid, validated (Scots, now obsolete).^[2]
• before 1648 – to make or declare legally valid.^[2][4]
• 1659 – to declare an election valid, or a person duly elected.^[2]
• 1775 – to confirm, corroborate or substantiate.^[2]
• 1951 – in psychology, to make a person feel valued.^[2]
• 1957 – to check for correctness or bias.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make or declare legally valid; to ratify: The new law must be validated by the senate.^[4][12][2]
2. To give official sanction to something by marking it: The clerk validated our parking ticket.^[10][11]
3. To confirm or corroborate; to establish the soundness of: Later experiments validated her theory.^[12][11][2]
4. To check or prove that something, such as data or a method, is correct.^[1][2]
5. To affirm that a person, or their feelings and opinions, are worthwhile.^[2]
6. To declare an election valid, or a person duly elected.^[10][2]

Word family

• validation
• validator
• revalidate
• validatory

Related words

• invalidate
• valid
• validity
• value
• prevail

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 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins