Authentification

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act or process of confirming the genuineness or validity of something
2. A procedure used to establish that an item or information is real and trustworthy
3. The process by which something is verified as original or legitimate

Etymology: "Authentification" is a variant of "authentication" that took its shape from a familiar pattern. English already had many pairs ending in "-ation" and "-ification," such as "ratification" and "verification," and the spelling seems to have been pulled into that group. The original word, "authentication," is the older and standard form, and "authentification" is best understood as an alteration of it rather than a separate coinage. The core meaning comes from "authentic," which traces back through Latin and Greek to a sense of acting on one's own authority or being genuine. Over time the noun came to describe the act of proving that something is what it claims to be, whether a painting, a signature, or a piece of data.

Synonyms: authentication