A screenshot of NPR’s article about the 2023 Word of the Year
A couple of days ago Merriam-Webster announced that its Word of the Year for 2023 is "authentic", triumphing over trendy words like "rizz" and "deepfake." In their blog post on the word of the year selection, Merriam-Webster noted that "authentic" is rather difficult word to define, and tends to have different meanings for different people. It's certainly a word that feels important this year. This year has seen the growth of technologies such as ChatGPT and Dali, which raise questions about machine-generated creative output, especially when it relies on the often unwanted scraping and wholesale consumption of thousands of human-generated works without acknowledgment or compensation. It has also been a rough year for diversity and inclusion efforts in workplaces and schools; the previous pushes to have employees bring their "authentic" selves to the workplace have been hampered or reversed in many cases due to businesses caving into economic and vocal pressure from conservative groups and due to the passage of "anti-woke" legislation in many states and communities across the United States. Here's a look at how the word has been defined over the past three centuries, with definitions drawn from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries:
Samuel Johnson, in his 1755 dictionary, defined the winning word with just a single sense, noting that, in contrast to current usage, “it is never used of persons:”
AUTHE’NTICK. adj. [authenticus, Lat.] That which has every thing requisite to give it authority, as an authentick register. It is used in opposition to any thing by which authority is destroyed, as authentick, not counterfeit. It is never used of persons.
Thou art wont his great authentick will
Interpreter through highest heav'n to bring. Par. Lost, b. iii.
She joy'd th' authentick news to hear,
Of what she guess'd before, with jealous fear. Cowley.
But censure's to be understood
Th' authentick mark of the elect,
The publick stamp heav'n sets on all that's great and good. Swift.
Johnson's treatment of the word is starkly concise when compared to its treatment in The Century Dictionary (1891) over a century later. The word can now definitely be applied to persons, as evidenced by the 4th definition, at least in the capacity of stating that a person is trustworthy or speaks from authority.
authentic (â-then'tik), a. and n. [Early mod. E. also authentick, autentic, etc., < ME. autentike, auctentyke, < OF. autentique (mod. F. authentique, being changed, like the E. word, to suit the L. spelling) = Pg. authentico = Sp. auténtico = It. autentico, < LL. authenticus, < Gr. αὐθεντικός, warrented, authentic, original, < αὐθεντία, original authority, < αὐθέντης, contr. < αὐτοέντης (rare), one who does anything with his own hand, the real author of any act < αὐτός, self, + *ἔντης (found also in συνέντης, equiv. to συνεργός, a fellow-workman), of uncertain origin, perhaps < *σεντ-, < *ἀσαντ-, orig. form of Ionic ἐών, Attic ὤν (= L. ens, *sens), ppr. of εἶαι, be: see ens, be1. Cf. effendi, also ult. < Gr. αὐθέντης.] I. a. 1†. Having authority; possessing inherent authority; duly authorized; authoritative.
Men ought to fly all pedantisms, and not rashly to use all words that are met with in every English writer, whether authentic or not. E. Phillips.
2. Real; of genuine origin; being what it purports to be: opposed to pretended or imaginary, fictitious, counterfeit, apocryphal, or unauthorized: as, authentic documents.
As there is but one God, but one hope, but one anchorage for man — so also there can be but one authentic faith, but one derivation of truth, but one perfect revelation. De Quincey, Essenes, iii.
3. In law, executed with all due formalities; executed by the proper person and legally attested before the proper authorities: as, an authentic deed. — 4. Entitled to acceptance or belief; reliable; trustworthy; of established credit, credibility, or authority: as, an authentic tale, book, writer.
Origen, a most authentic author in this point. Brevint, Saul and Samuel, p. 77.
Of the manner in which the ruin of Nineveh was brought about we have nowhere any authentic record. Von Ranke, Univ. Hist. (trans.), p. 82.
That this mere dream is grown a stable truth
To-night's feast makes authentic. Browning, In a Balcony.
5†. Original; first-hand, as opposed to copied or transcribed. — 6. Own; proper; properly belonging to one's self. [Archaic.]
It were extreme partiality and injustice, the flat denial and overthrow of herself [Justice], to put her own authentic sword into the hand of an unjust and wicked man. Milton, Eikonoklastes, xxviii.
Men are ephemeral or evanescent, but whatever page the authentic soul of man has touched with her immortalizing finger, no matter how long ago, is still young and fair as it was to the world's gray fathers. Lowell, Oration, Harvard, Nov. 8, 1886.
7. In music, having an immediate relation to the key-note or tonic: in distinction from plagal, which has a corresponding relation to the fifth or dominant in the octave below the key-note.
— Authentic act, in civil law, an act or deed performed before and attested by a notary or other proper magistrate. — Authentic cadence, same as perfect cadence (which see, under cadence). — Authentic melodies. See melody. — Authentic modes or tones. See mode. =Syn. 2 and 4. Authentic, Genuine, correct, trustworthy, reliable, credible. When applied to a written document or a book, authentic indicates that it is reliable as narrating real facts; genuine, that we have it as it left its author's hands: as, an authentic history; a genuine text. Authentic is thus equivalent to trustworthy, reliable; genuine, to unadulterated. The "Memoirs of a Cavalier" is a genuine work of Defoe's, for it was written by him, but it is not an authentic work, although so plausibly assuming the tone of real biography that it "deceived even the great Chatham into citing the volume as an authentic narrative" (Backus, Revision of Shaw's Eng. Lit., p. 250).
A genuine book is that which was written by the person whose name it bears; . . . an authentic book is that which relates matters of fact as they really happened. A book may be authentic without being genuine, and genuine without being authentic. Bp. Watson.
II.† n. [< LL. authenticum, ML. also authentica, the original (of a document), neut. or fem. of authenticus: see I.] 1. An authoritative or genuine document or book. — 2. An original, as opposed to a copy or transcript.
Authentics and transcripts. Fuller, Church Hist., I. 42.
The Authentics, in civil law, a Latin translation from the Greek of the novels or new constitutions of Justinian, made by an anonymous author. So called as an unabridged translation of the novels, to distinguish it from the epitome made by Julian.
Webster's Third New International Dictionary, in 1981, recorded 8 different senses of "authentic" (in contrast to the current online Webster, which has 5 meanings):
au·then·tic \ə'thentik, ȯ'-, -tēk\ adj [alter. (influenced by Gk authentikos) of earlier autentyke, fr. ME autentik, fr. MF autentique, fr. LL authenticus, fr. Gk authentikos, fr. authentēs, murderer, master, doer (fr. aut- + -hentēs one that accomplishes) + -ikos -ic; akin to Gk anyein, anein to accomplish, entea (pl.) armor, Skt sanoti he gains] 1 obs : possessing authority that is not usu. open to challenge : AUTHORITATIVE 2 : worthy of acceptance or belief by reason of conformity to fact and reality : not contradicted by evidence : TRUSTWORTHY, CREDIBLE, CONVINCING <an ~ book on medieval customs> <an ~ portrayal> 3 a : vested with due formalities and legally attested : legally valid <an ~ act> b obs : properly qualified : AUTHORIZED 4 a : not imaginary or specious : REAL, GENUINE <~ joy over her return> b : not copied : ORIGINAL <an ~ manuscript> <an ~ Chippendale chair> 5 of a church mode : ranging upwards from the keynote — distinguished from plagal 6 : of an origin that cannot be questioned : indisputably proceeding from a given source that is avowed or implied : not spurious <an ~ historical reference> 7 a : marked by conformity to widespread or long-continued tradition <an ~ English custom> b : marked by close conformity to an original : accurately and satisfyingly reproducing essential features <an ~ portrait> 8 biol : VALID
syn GENUINE, VERITABLE, BONA FIDE: AUTHENTIC stresses fidelity to actuality and fact, compatibility with a certain source or origin, accordance with usage or tradition, or complete sincerity without feigning or hypocrisy <he told his grandfather that he had been in combat with a giant, and frightened his poor mother ... with long, and by no means authentic, accounts of the battle — W. M. Thackeray> <an esoteric jargon which does not even have the authentic ring of American slang — Stanley Walker> <only the authentic Christian tradition has the answer to our present problems — Times Lit. Supp.> <an authentic passion for concrete detail, in the mind of the author himself — C. E. Montague> GENUINE may stress definite origin from a certain source <whose letter — genuine or counterfeited — had been so instrumental in hastening this outbreak — J. L. Motley> GENUINE chiefly emphasizes a real actual character as contrasted with a fraudulent, deceptive appearance <whether it is a genuine insight into the workings of his own mind or only a false explanation of them — C. D. Lewis> <sham motor bus companies which if genuine would have been very sensible and publicly useful investments — G. B. Shaw> <palming off paper imitations of all kinds of valuables on the simple-minded ghosts and gods, who take them in all good faith for the genuine articles — J. G. Frazer> GENUINE may also describe emotions or mental states really experienced and not feigned <that was no conventional expected shock that she had received. It was genuine unforeseen shock — Arnold Bennett> In "a genuine authentic Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington", GENUINE emphasizes certainty of ascription to Stuart and AUTHENTIC emphasizes the close similarity between portrait and subject. VERITABLE indicates a true existence or actual identity <the ruffians were so utterly appalled, not only by the false powers of magic, but by veritable powers of majesty and eloquence — Charles Kingsley> It may indicate a very close similarity and stress the suitability of a metaphor <an old gray-haired lady, a veritable saint who had not been soured by her many deeds of charity — P. E. More> BONA FIDE, often commercial or legal in suggestion, stresses good faith and lack of intent to deceive or the avoidance of equivocal casuistry <bona fide residents who . . . maintained homes in no other places — Harper's>
The first couple of meanings in the 1981 definition approach but don't fully echo the current Webster's 2nd meaning, which specifically is applied to people: "true to one's own personality, spirit, or character."
It will be interesting to see how this word changes meaning and importance over the next few years, as machine learning algorithms weigh against human creations, as the younger generation pushes to have their diverse voices heard, and as society at large wrestles with whether authenticity matters and what being authentic really means for individuals, societies, brands, corporations, creative works, etc.
