verification

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French verificacion, modern vérification,^[2][3][4] or alternatively Medieval Latin vērificātiō;^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster and Klein give Middle French as the source,^[5][6] Etymonline and Dictionary.com Medieval Latin.^[7][8] The Latin noun is formed from vērificātus, the past participle of vērificō (“to make true”),^[8][6][7] from Latin vērus (“true”) and faciō (“to make”), the source of verify.^[7][6] The OED compares Italian verificazione and Portuguese verificação.^[2] Middle English already had verifiaunce (“confirmation, corroboration”) (about 1400), and verifiing and the legal verifiement (both early 14th century).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of demonstrating or proving something true or legitimate by evidence or testimony; a formal assertion of truth: 1523, in a register of the bishopric of Aberdeen.^[2][5] Etymonline glosses the first use as the act of confirming or establishing authenticity.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From about 1541 the word also meant the demonstration of truth by facts or circumstances;^[2][3] from 1603, in Florio's translation of Montaigne, the testing of a fact, statement or theory by investigation or by comparing data, now the main sense.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as confirmation by argument or evidence, quoting Boyle.^[9] In 1789 Arthur Young used it, after French usage, for ratification.^[2] The testing of the accuracy of instruments or the quality of goods is recorded from 1832, in Babbage,^[2] and the philosophical sense, the testing of a proposition by experience, associated with logical positivism, from 1932, in Schlick.^[2] In law it formerly also named a short affidavit at the end of a pleading in which the pleader declared readiness to prove the assertions.^[10][5]

Timeline

• 1523 – proof of truth by evidence or testimony.^[2][5]
• c. 1541 – demonstration of truth by facts.^[2]
• 1603 – the testing of a fact or theory by investigation.^[2][7]
• 1789 – ratification, after French usage.^[2]
• 1832 – the testing of instruments or goods.^[2]
• 1932 – in philosophy, empirical testing of a proposition.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act or process of checking that something is true, accurate or genuine: The bank asked for verification of her address.
2. Evidence that proves an assertion or theory.
3. (law) Confirmation by evidence; formerly, a short affidavit at the end of a pleading.
4. (philosophy) The testing of a statement by empirical experience.

Word family

• verificative
• nonverification
• reverification

Related words

• verify
• verity
• verism
• veritable
• very

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins