Legitimisations

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of making something legitimate, often through formal validation or approval by relevant authorities
2. The act of establishing the authenticity or legality of a practice, right, or status in social or legal contexts
3. The methods or actions taken to ensure that a decision, organization, or system is recognized as valid and accepted within a society or community

Etymology: "Legitimisations" is the plural of "legitimisation," a noun built from the verb "legitimise" plus the suffix "-ation," which turns a verb into the name of the act or process it describes. The verb "legitimise" is itself a derivative of "legitimate," so the chain runs from an adjective meaning lawful, to a verb meaning to make lawful, to a noun meaning the act of doing so. The suffix has a long ancestry. It descends from the Latin "-ātiō," which was built on verb stems ending in "-āre," and passed into English through Old French "-ation" and Middle English "-aciioun." Its distant Indo-European origins lie in a tangle of prehistoric endings, but for practical purposes the suffix arrived in English by way of French, which is why so many English nouns in "-ation" feel like they belong to the formal vocabulary of law and government.

Synonyms: validations, justifications

Antonyms: delegitimisations