imprimatur

See also: imprimátur

English

WOTD – 19 November 2008

Etymology

From Latin imprimātur (“let it be printed”), third person singular present subjunctive passive form of imprimere (“to imprint”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈmɑː.tʊə/, /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈmeɪ.tʊə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈmɑ.tɚ/, /ˌɪm.pɹɪˈmeɪ.tɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  ,

  Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

imprimatur (plural imprimaturs or imprimantur)

1. (printing) An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies.
   • 1664, John Wilson, The Cheats, publication info page:

     The Cheats · A Comedy · Written in the Year, M.DC.LXII. Imprimatur, Roger L'estrange. Nov. 5. 1663. By John Wilson

2. (by extension) Any mark of official approval.

   Synonyms: approval, authorization, endorsement

   • 1988, New York Times, Gay fiction comes home, [1]:

     Children, the final imprimatur to family life, are being borrowed, adopted, created by artificial insemination.

   • 2015 March 30, Michael Billington, “Look Back in Anger: how John Osborne liberated theatrical language”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Even with the imprimatur of Tynan and Hobson, the play was not an instant hit.

Translations

official license to publish

• Finnish: julkaisulupa (fi), imprimatur (fi)
• French: imprimatur (fr) m
• Hungarian: imprimatúra
• Norwegian: imprimatur (no) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: са́нкция (ru) f (sánkcija), одобре́ние (ru) n (odobrénije), разреше́ние (ru) n (razrešénije)
• Spanish: imprimátur (es) m
• Swedish: godkännande (sv), sanktion (sv)

any mark of official approval

• Russian: са́нкция (ru) f (sánkcija), разреше́ние (ru) n (razrešénije), добро́ (ru) n (dobró) (colloquial)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Swedish: sanktion (sv)

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Czech

Noun

imprimatur n

1. imprimatur

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French

Etymology

From Latin imprimātur (“let it be printed”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pʁi.ma.tyʁ/

Noun

imprimatur m (plural imprimaturs)

1. imprimatur

   Donner son imprimatur.

Further reading

• “imprimatur”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Indonesian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin imprimātur (“let it be printed”), third person singular present subjunctive passive form of imprimere (“to imprint”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /imprimatur/
• Hyphenation: im‧pri‧ma‧tur

Noun

imprimatur

1. (Catholicism) imprimatur, an official license to publish or print something.

Further reading

• “imprimatur” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /im.priˈmaː.tur/, [ɪmprɪˈmäːt̪ʊr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /im.priˈma.tur/, [impriˈmäːt̪ur]

Verb

(deprecated template usage) imprimātur

1. third-person singular present passive subjunctive of imprimō