authentic

authentic, genuine, veritable, bona fide denote being exactly what the thing in question is said to be or professes to be.

The prevailing sense of authentic is authoritative or trustworthy with the implication of actuality or accordance with fact

{

confirmed both by legend and authentic record— Froude

}

{

an authentic description of the Great Fire of London

}

The prevailing sense of genuine is real or true (see REAL) often with the implication of descent without admixture from an original stock or of correspondence without adulteration to the natural or original product called by that name

{

genuine maple syrup

}

{

a genuine Russian wolfhound

}

{

this is real merino, the genuine article

}

Often the stress is on sincerity or lack of factitiousness

{

genuine piety

}

{

true simplicity and genuine pathos— Wordsworth

}

Both terms are used— genuine more frequently than authentic—as opposed to spurious, counterfeit, apocryphal

{

let them contrast their own fantastical personages . . . with the authentic rustics of Burns— Jeffrey

}

{

what is genuine knowledge, and what is its counterfeit— Newman

}

It is idiomatic to say of a work (as a portrait) “this is an authentic portrait of George Washington” (that is, it was painted from life) and “this is a genuine Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington” (that is, it is properly ascribed to Gilbert Stuart, the painter).

Veritable implies a correspondence with truth; it is seldom used without a suggestion of asseveration or of affirmation of belief

{

I who am now talking . . . am the veritable Socrates— Blackie

}

{

though Christ be the veritable Son of God— Quiller-Couch

}

It also is applied to words or phrases used figuratively or hyperbolically to assert the justice of the designation or of its truth in essentials

{

his fits of passion are veritable hurricanes

}

{

he is a veritable fool

}

Bona fide, though often used as though it were the equivalent of genuine or authentic, is properly applied when good faith or sincerity is in question

{

a bona fide sale of securities

}

{

a bona fide bid for a piece of property

}

Analogous words: authoritarian, oracular (see DICTATORIAL): *reliable, trustworthy, dependable: *correct, right, exact: true, *real, actual

Antonyms: spurious

Contrasted words: *fictitious, apocryphal, fabulous, mythical, legendary: *false, wrong: deceptive, *misleading, delusive, delusory: *supposed, supposititious, putative, purported, hypothetical