It's the Word of the Day podcast for October 12th.
Today's word is imprimatur.
It's also pronounced imprimatur and spelled I-M-P-R-I-M-A-T-U-R.
Imprimatur is a noun.
It's a formal word that refers to explicit approval or permission.
Here's the word used in a sentence from Play Harder,
the triumph of black baseball in America by Gerald Early.
It is not overstating to say that Frederick Douglass was a baseball man.
He attended games, supported his son's involvement, and even played catch with his grandchildren.
Douglass's support gave black baseball an imprimatur of race approval as an activity that uplifted the race.
It was not frivolous for black men to pursue this sport as an avocation or even as a vocation.
Impromatur means let it be printed in new Latin,
the Latin used since the end of the medieval period, especially in science.
It comes from the Latin word imprimare, meaning to imprint or impress.
In the 1600s, the word appeared in the front matter of books,
accompanied by the name of an official authorizing the book's printing.
In time, English speakers began using imprimatur in the general sense of official approval.
With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.