IMPRIMATUR

[Dr. Goodword]

• imprimatur •

Pronunciation: im-pri-mê-tyur, im-pri-mah-tur • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An official approval or stamp of approval, official permission to do something.

Notes: Given the origin of this word, Latin imprimere "to print", it comes as no surprise that this word began its life in the 17th century referring to the stamp of approval of either the censor or the financial officer responsible for the printing of a book. Today, however, it is used most widely metaphorically, allowing us to express "stamp of approval" in one breath. The greatest challenge we face in using this Good Word is in resisting the temptation to end it with Silent E—we must stop writing when we reach the second R!

In Play: An imprimatur is the required permission of someone who enjoys complete control: "Nothing goes onto the agenda of the weekly office conference without the imprimatur of the boss's secretary." While the permission does not have to really be official, it must carry the sense of officialdom: "You won't see Luke Worme wandering out of the house at night without his wife's imprimatur."

Word History: Today's Good word is Latin for "let it be printed," a subjunctive form of the verb imprimere "to print". This verb originally meant "to press into, to stamp" from in "in(to)" + premere "to press". In fact, its past participle is impressus, which we borrowed as impress in the senses of both "to print" and "to force into military duty". The sense of "to stamp" in the sense of stamping a wax seal led this word to the metaphorical meaning of impress we use so widely today, as to make an impression on someone's mind. (We are happy to give our imprimatur to Bill Cline's suggestion of today's Good Word.)

[LukeJavan8]

To say nothing of the Roman Church's "Index" of
forbidden book, with only those with the Church's
"imprimatur" being readable, especially when dealing
with what that Church taught concerning faith and morals.

[M. Henri Day]

Does anyone know just when during the 17th century the word «imprimatur» began to be employed for this purpose in the printing of books ? I ask because I happen to be re-reading Galileo Galilei's Dialogo sopra i duei massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico e copernicano, published in Firenze in 1632, and I note that the term is not used there. Rather, one sees the following :

CON LICENZA DE' SUPERIORI

at the bottom of the frontispiece. But the imprimatur did play a role for the work's fate - after Galileo was forced to abjure his work and its teachings in 1633, all copies were confiscated and it was not officially reprinted until 1744 and was not removed from the Index Librorum Prohibitorum until 1822 (the Index itself hung around until 1966)....

Henri[/i]

[LukeJavan8]

The word "Imprimatur" was always followed by
the name of a Bishop or Vicar General speaking for the
Bishop, whom, I suppose would be the
De' Superiori, in later printings. The bishop's name always
had a small cross in front of it, indicating "consecration"??
But I have no idea when the word, Imprimatur, began
to be used.