[f. med.L. authenticā-re, authenticāt-, to make authentic, f. authentic-us; also in It. autenticare, Sp. autenticar, Fr. authentiquer.] To make or prove authentic.
1. trans. and refl. To invest (a thing) with authority; to render authoritative.
a. 1733. North, Lives, II. 339. They want antiquity to authenticate their ceremonies.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. 32. The Clementine constitutions … were … authenticated in 1317 by … John XXII.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., iv. (1867), 80. Christianity authenticates the voice of conscience.
2. To give legal validity to; to render valid, establish the validity of.
1653. Nissena, 64. An Order from his Majesty, authenticated and sealed by his Kingly Seal.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., I. 323. A tax … of service to the public in general, by authenticating instruments.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, I. ii. (1840), I. 63. They recommended, as the best mode of authenticating the privilege, that it should be incorporated in a fresh renewal of their charter.
3. To establish the title to credibility and acceptance: a. of a statement, or b. of a reputed fact.
a. 1654. Cokayne, Dianea, I. 15. Oleandro replied, he … could authenticate his Maximes by examples.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., II. 135. To authenticate and make good his Hypothesis.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, I. i. § 2. 63. If the conclusion … is not authenticated by the real occurrence.
b. 1662. H. Stubbe, Ind. Nectar, ii. 13. Those ways, which are authenticated by Physicians.
1778. Robertson, Hist. Amer., II. v. 60. Were not all the circumstances of this extraordinary transaction authenticated by the most unquestionable evidence.
1823. Lamb, Elia (1860), 298. A room, which tradition authenticated to have been the same.
4. To establish the claims of (anything) to a particular character or authorship; to establish the genuineness of; to certify the authorship of.
1852. Ld. Cockburn, Jeffrey, I. 285. We went through the whole work, authenticating all his papers.
1865. Grote, Plato, I. iv. 155. Aristophanes authenticates … not merely the Leges, but also the Epinomis, and the Epistolæ.
b. with subord. cl.
1860. Pusey, Min. Proph., 535. The usual formula … with which the prophets authenticated, that they spake not of themselves, but by the Spirit of God.
