imprimaturn.
/ɪmprɪˈmeɪtə/ 1. The formula (= ‘let it be printed’), signed by an official licenser of the press, authorizing the printing of a book; hence as n. an official license to print.Now (in Great Britain and U.S.) only in works officially sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > [noun]
print1499
impression1509
printing1509
impressing1530
press1579
imprimatur1640
typography1646
imprimery1681
presswork1728
imprimature1813
imprint1899
1640 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. 23 Nov. (1642) iii. 7 To this I parallell our late Imprimatur's, Licences for the Presse.
1641 J. Milton Animadversions 8 Your proud Imprimaturs not to be obtain'd without the shallow surview, but not shallow hand of some mercenary, narrow Soul'd, and illitterate Chaplain.
1660 Exact Accompt Trial Regicides (title page) Imprimatur; John Berkenhead.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 445. ¶1 A Sheet of blank Paper that must have this new Imprimatur clapt upon it.
1781 H. Croft Young in S. Johnson Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets X. 17 The vice-chancellor's imprimatur (for it was first printed at Oxford) is dated May the 19th, 1713.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xxi. 607 But Etherege's She Would if She Could..obtained the Imprimatur without difficulty.
1870 J. B. Brown First Princ. Eccl. Truth 242 These tales..were circulated..with the imprimatur of the church.
1883 Catholic Dict. p. iv Imprimatur. Henricus Eduardus Card. Archiep. Westmonast. Die 18 Dec. 1883.
1884 W. E. Addis & T. Arnold Catholic Dict. (ed. 2) It has not been thought necessary to secure a fresh ‘Imprimatur’ for the additional matter in this edition; but it is submitted to the authority of the Church.
2. figurative. Commendatory license, sanction.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > [noun]
willOE
allowancec1400
acceptationa1425
allowing1435
approof1439
approving1523
comprobation1529
owning1535
approbation1548
good liking?1560
suffrage1563
acceptance1569
liking1569
pleasure1569
allowment1570
approvance1592
probatum1606
approvement1615
sufferage1622
the light of a person's countenance1649
reception1660
receivedness1661
imprimatur1672
approval1690
sanction1738
go-down1753
rubber stamping1920
1672 A. Marvell Rehearsal Transpros'd i. 46 As things of Buffoonery do commonly, they carry with them their own Imprimatur.
1744 E. Young Complaint: Night the Seventh 69 Thus shall my Title pass a sacred Seal, Receive an Imprimatur from Above.
1893 C. Patmore Relig. Poetæ 121 Lord Rosebery affirmed that the test of true literature and its only justifiable Imprimatur is ‘the thumb-mark of the artisan’.
1955 Bull. Atomic Scientists June 209/2 His calculations and conclusions bear no imprimatur of the Atomic Energy Commission.
1973 N.Y. Law Jrnl. 31 Aug. 3/1 It is well-settled contract law that courts do not give their imprimatur to such arrangements.
3. Used for imprint n. 3. (Quot. 1971 is figurative.)
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > matter of book > [noun] > colophon or imprint
epigraph1633
colophon1774
imprint1790
imprimatur1970
society > communication > indication > marking > imprinting > [noun] > imprint
impression1398
imprint1483
signature1582
impress1606
impressurea1616
stampa1652
handstamp1676
imprimature1768
imprimatur1970
1970 Daily Tel. 7 May 13/2 The agent, not the candidate, is the one liable to fines..if he..issues one word of election literature without his own and the printer's imprimatur on it.
1971 Nature 7 May 40/2 The site near Kültepe has been identified as the Assyrian karum Kanis and most of the tablets can thus be considered to bear the implicit imprimatur ‘found at Kanis’.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1640