Kitemark

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mark or symbol officially approved by an authority to certify that a product meets required safety or quality standards
2. A recognized emblem denoting that a product has undergone testing and meets established safety and quality standards set forth by an official authority
3. A certification symbol indicating that a product has been verified and complies with specific safety and quality requirements established by an authoritative body

Etymology: The word "kitemark" is built from two plain English parts: "kite" and "mark." The kite in question is not the flying toy but a stamp-like symbol. In the British standards system, the mark took the shape of a kite, a diamond-shaped emblem printed on products to show they had passed inspection by the standards body. The "mark" half is the ordinary sense of a sign or stamp of approval, so the compound simply means a mark in the shape of a kite. The shape itself was the point of the design, giving consumers an easily recognized sign that a product had been tested against official safety and quality requirements. Over time the term came to name any such approval emblem, not only the original kite-shaped one, and it is now used more broadly for certification marks of this kind.