Word of the Day Archive
Thursday August 19, 2004
imprimatur \im-prih-MAH-tur; -MAY-\ , noun:
1. Official license or approval to print or publish a book, paper, etc.; especially, such a license issued by the Roman Catholic episcopal authority.
2. Approval; sanction.
3. A mark of approval or distinction.
Vatican officials have overruled a 1994 decision by a bishop in England, ordering him to withdraw his imprimatur from a popular religious education text that had come under attack from conservatives.
-- "Vatican orders bishop to remove imprimatur", National Catholic Reporter, February 27, 1998
His name was known and respected on both sides of the Atlantic; his imprimatur on a stock or bond offering could be worth millions to the firm doing the issue.
-- H. W. Brands, Masters of Enterprise
But neither controversial phenomena nor potentially illuminating but statistically insignificant research has had the imprimatur of a peer-reviewed journal -- until now.
-- Kaja Perina, "Probing folklore & fringe science", Psychology Today, July-August 2002
Imprimatur is from New Latin imprimatur, "let it be printed," from imprimere, "to imprint," from Latin, from in- + premere, "to press."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for imprimatur
