Underauthorised

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Lacking formal permission or approval from the proper authority to act or to be done
2. Done or held without the official sanction that a governing body would normally require
3. Not granted legal or official permission, so carried out without proper authority

Etymology: "Under-" is an old English prefix meaning "beneath" or, by extension, "not enough." Attached to a verb or adjective, it marks something done too little or with too little of what is needed. "Underauthorised" therefore means something like "given insufficient official permission or sanction," and it is built the same way as "underfunded" or "understaffed." The stem comes from "authorise," which passed through Old French "autoriser" from Late Latin "auctorizare," meaning "to give authority to." That Latin verb grows from "auctor," "originator, one who causes something to happen," which is also the source of "author." So the root idea is less about writing and more about being the one who brings something into existence or stands behind it, and an underauthorised action is one whose backing from that source falls short.

Synonyms: unauthorized

Antonyms: authorised