Imprimatur

 WORD OF THE DAY

imprimatur / noun / im-pruh-MAH-too

Definition
1a: sanction, approval
1b: imprint
1c: a mark of approval or distinction
2a: a license to print or publish especially by Roman Catholic episcopal authority
2b: approval of a publication under circumstances of official censorship

Examples
"Various uses for the land—some grandiose—have been floated and sunk over the years, but the latest proposal … was given the imprimatur of the city commission, which unanimously approved it….."
— Larry Keller, The Palm Beach Daily News, 14 Jan. 2022

Secondly, the state’s imprimatur has very little relevance in a world where essential data and systems are attacked by state-level or even private entities all the time.
— Roger Huang, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2021

Did You Know?
Imprimatur means "let it be printed" in New Latin.
It comes from Latin imprimere, meaning to "imprint" or "impress."
In the 1600s, the word appeared in the front matter of books, accompanied by the name of an official authorizing the book's printing.
It was also in the 1600s that English speakers began using imprimatur in the general sense of "official approval."
The Roman Catholic Church still issues imprimaturs for books concerned with religious matters (to indicate that a work contains nothing offensive to Catholic morals or faith), and there have been other authorities for imprimaturs as well.
For example, when Samuel Pepys was president of the Royal Society, he placed his imprimatur on the title page of England's great scientific work, Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, in 1687.