Vetting

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Carefully examining or evaluating something to ensure its suitability or accuracy
2. Conducting a thorough check or review to verify reliability or correctness
3. Performing detailed scrutiny to confirm appropriateness or validity

Etymology: "Vetting" is the -ing form of "vet," so its history is the history of that verb. "Vet" is a clipping of two different words: "veterinarian," the animal doctor, and "veteran," the long-serving person. Both were shortened in informal speech, and that is the source of the verb. The sense of carefully checking something probably grew out of the older use of "vet" for a vet's examination of an animal's health. That meaning may have been extended by analogy, so that a person, a document or an idea could be examined in the same way to see whether it was sound.

Synonyms: screening, evaluation, assessment, review, examination