Countersigned

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. To endorse a document by signing it in addition to the original signature ; to confirm or validate an agreement through a secondary signature ; to formally approve a paper by adding one’s signature alongside another’s
2. To add a confirming signature to an official paper already signed ; to authenticate or corroborate a document with a subsequent signature ; to support a written agreement through a joint signing process
3. To sign a document in support of a primary signature, thereby authorizing it ; to verify the validity of a statement or contract by appending an additional signature ; to jointly sanction written material by offering another signature after the first has been placed

Etymology: "Countersigned" is the past form of "countersign," which joined "counter-" and "sign" in Middle French as "contresigne." The "counter-" element here carries its older sense of "against" or "in opposition," as in "counteract" or "counterfeit," so a countersignature was originally a second signature set against the first, one that checked or confirmed the original document. That is the sense still at work when a cheque or a passport needs a second authorising name beside the first. The English verb took the same shape from the French noun, so the word's parts are easy to read: the sign is the mark of authority, and the counter is the act of setting another against it. Nothing about the word has shifted far from that original idea, which is perhaps why the legal and bureaucratic uses have stayed so stable.

Synonyms: co-signed, endorsed

Antonyms: unsigned, disapproved