imprimatur

[im-pri-mah-ter, -mey-, -prahy-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR imprimatur ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an official license to print or publish a book, pamphlet, etc., especially a license issued by a censor of the Roman Catholic Church.Compare nihil obstat.

sanction or approval; support: Our plan has the company president's imprimatur.

RELATED WORDS

charter, permission, permit, sanction

Origin of imprimatur

1630–40; < New Latin: let it be printed, Latin: let it be made by pressing upon (something); see impress¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for imprimatur

Contemporary Examples of imprimatur

What makes CEOs think that putting their imprimatur on a political movement will increase public pressure on the two parties?
Starbucks’ Effort to Solve the Fiscal Cliff Probably Won’t Work
Daniel Gross
December 26, 2012
From a Wall Street perspective, Buffett got privileged, and not level-playing-field, access as a payoff for his imprimatur.
Obama Extols Warren Buffett as Hero, But to Wall Street He’s No Angel
Zachary Karabell
January 26, 2012

Historical Examples of imprimatur

I mean it depends on his permission; his imprimatur; his nihil obstat.
Alarms and Discursions
G. K. Chesterton
Work of men's hands they may be, but they bear the imprimatur of nature.
Greener Than You Think
Ward Moore
In the new creation of the human mind it was Imprimatur—let it be printed.
Printing and the Renaissance
John Rothwell Slater
The Vice-Chancellor's imprimatur (for it was printed at Oxford) is dated the 19th, 1713.
Lives of the Poets: Gay, Thomson, Young, and Others
Samuel Johnson
This imprimatur is stamped upon the first page of the text in every book.
Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh
Augustus F. Lindley

British Dictionary definitions for imprimatur

imprimatur

noun

RC Church a licence granted by a bishop certifying the Church's approval of a book to be published

sanction, authority, or approval, esp for something to be printed

Word Origin for imprimatur

C17: New Latin, literally: let it be printed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for imprimatur

1640, Modern Latin, literally "let it be printed," the formula of a book licenser, third person singular present subjunctive passive of Latin imprimere "to print" (see impress). Originally of state license to print books, later only of Roman Catholic Church.