Validated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Proved or confirmed to be accurate, true, or acceptable after examination or testing ; officially approved or authorized by an authority or institution
2. Shown to be correct or valid through evidence or assessment ; granted official recognition or sanction
3. Demonstrated as legitimate or reliable through verification ; accepted by formal approval or endorsement

Etymology: "Validated" is the past tense and past participle of "validate," so the story belongs to the verb. The verb was first recorded in English in 1648, borrowed from Medieval Latin "validātus," the past participle of "validō," a verb built from the Latin adjective "validus," meaning strong or healthy. That adjective is also the source of "valid," which is why the two words look so alike. The Latin verb's core idea is strength. Something that is valid is strong enough to stand up, so to validate something is to make it strong enough to be trusted. English kept that sense of confirming that a thing holds up, whether a document, a claim, or a ticket that has been stamped and made usable. The pattern "valid" plus "-ate" shows how English borrowed the Latin verb-forming ending to create the verb directly from the root.

Synonyms: confirmed, verified

Antonyms: invalidated