A.Word.A.Day --imprimatur

A.Word.A.Day

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Sep 22, 2009

This week's theme
Words about censorship and destruction of books

This week's words
comstockery
imprimatur
bowdlerize
nihil obstat
grangerize

Imprimatur

Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687), bearing the imprimatur of the Royal Society president Samuel Pepys

(photo: Andrew Dunn)

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

imprimatur

PRONUNCIATION:

(im-pri-MAH-tuhr, -MAY-)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Approval or authority; imprint.
2. A license to print or publish, especially one issued by a censor of the Roman Catholic Church.

ETYMOLOGY:

From New Latin imprimatur (let it be printed), from imprimere (to imprint), from in- (in) + premere (to press). Ultimately from the Indo-European root per- (to strike) that also gave us print, press, pressure, compress, impress, express, and espresso.

USAGE:

"Under the new arrangement, the books will be published under the Anne Geddes imprimatur."
Lynn Andriani; Perseus to Distribute Photographer Anne Geddes; Publishers Weekly (New York); Jul 16, 2009.

"The fact that the answer has the imprimatur of Cabinet does not necessarily mean that the information is correct or relevant."
Julian Kenny; Of Sardines and Red Herrings; Trinidad and Tobago Express; Jun 30 2009.

See more usage examples of imprimatur in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

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