{"id":7043,"date":"2025-07-09T23:53:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T23:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=7043"},"modified":"2025-07-09T23:55:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T23:55:39","slug":"word-of-the-day-imprimatur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2025\/07\/09\/word-of-the-day-imprimatur\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Imprimatur"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Words Coach (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=imprimatur<\/a>), is imprimatur<\/em>. Pronounced \/ \u02cc\u026am pr\u026a\u02c8m\u0251 t\u0259r \/ with the stress on the third syllable and the vowel like the a<\/em> in ah<\/em>, \/ \u02cc\u026am\u02c8pr\u026am \u0259 t\u0259r \/ with the stress on the second syllable, or \/ \u02cc\u026am pr\u026a\u02c8me\u026a t\u0259r \/ with the stress on the third syllable and vowel like the a<\/em> in day<\/em>, but always with a secondary stress on the first syllable, imprimatur<\/em> means \u201can official license to print or publish a book, pamphlet, etc., especially a license issued by a censor of the Roman Catholic Church\u201d or \u201csanction or approval\u201d (https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/browse\/imprimatur<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymonline.com says that the word first appears in the English language in \u201c1640, Modern Latin, literally \u2018let it be printed,\u2019 the formula of a book licenser, third person singular present subjunctive passive of Latin imprimere<\/em> \u2018to print, engrave, stamp; press upon, press against,\u2019 from assimilated form of in-<\/em> \u2018into, in, on, upon\u2019 (from PIE root *en<\/strong><\/a> \u2018in\u2019) + premere<\/em> \u2018to press, hold fast, cover, crowd, compress\u2019 (from PIE root *per-<\/strong><\/a> (4) \u2018to strike\u2019). Originally of state licence to print books, later only of Roman Catholic Church\u201d (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=imprimatur<\/a>). So the first meaning of the word was specifically about printing books or other written material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, Merriam-Webster says, \u201cImprimatur<\/em> means \u2018let it be printed\u2019 in New Latin. It comes from Latin imprimere<\/em>, meaning to \u2018imprint<\/a>\u2019 or \u2018impress<\/a>.\u2019 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<\/em> in the general sense of \u2018official approval\u2019\u201d (https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/imprimatur<\/a>). I do not think that anybody puts imprimatur<\/em> in the frontispiece of a book anymore, so I think it\u2019s fair to say that the more common meaning today is the second, \u201csanction or approval.\u201d We have talked about this semantic change before; it\u2019s called generalization or broadening, and it\u2019s pretty common in the English language. I might also point out that it appeared during a time in the history of the language when scholars were importing a lot of words from Latin. The word is Latin enough even in 1755 that Samuel Johnson does not include it in his Dictionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1816, according to On This Day, \u201cArgentina declares independence from Spain at the Congress of Tucum\u00e1n\u201d (https:\/\/www.onthisday.com\/events\/july\/9<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina is the fourth largest country by area in the Americas and the eighth largest in the world. It\u2019s population is somewhere under 50 million people, making it the 32nd<\/sup> largest country in the world by population. For most of its prehistory, it was relatively sparsely populated. The northern part of modern-day Argentina was conquered by the Incas, but not until 1480, less than 30 years before the first Europeans came across it (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Argentina<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Spain and Portugal each claimed Argentina for themselves, and the Pope had to step in, and the Treaty of Tordesillas separated South America between the two nations. Argentina went to Spain. This all happened in the late 15th<\/sup> century, before either the Spanish or the Portugese had even laid eyes on the continent. Pedro de Mondoza founded the settlement of Buenos Aires in 1536, but by 1541 it was abandoned (ibid.). Colonization continued throughout the 16th<\/sup> century, even the refounding of the capital in 1580.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain used Argentina (not called that) the way they used their other American colonies, exploiting it for whatever mineral resources it had (gold and silver in particular), but not really developing the economy. Buenos Aires had become the capital of the Viceroyalty of the R\u00edo de la Plata, what today is Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, and even parts of Brazil. During the week of May 18-25 in 1810, the leaders in the Viceroyalty began considerations of responding to the abdication of the King of Spain to Napoleon, who gave the throne to his brother, Joseph. The leaders formed a junta in opposition to Joseph, but the Spanish of course did not recognize the junta. When Napoleon fell, the royal houses of Europe reasserted their power. But by this time talk of forming a republic was in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1816, Ignacio \u00c1lvarez Thomas\u2014who had assumed the role of Supreme Director in place of Jos\u00e9 Rondeau\u2014convened a General Constituent Congress in Tucum\u00e1n, hoping to achieve a political definition\u201d (https:\/\/derechadiario.com.ar\/us\/argentina\/what-happened-july-9-1816-history-of-argentinas-independence-day<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, on July 9, 1816, \u201cThe Congress met in the house of Francisca Baz\u00e1n de Laguna, which in 1941 was declared a National Historic Monument. Most of the representatives favored a constitutional monarchy, a model predominant in Europe. The republic, at that time, was a rarity that had only prospered in the United States. According to accounts from the time, the session began around two in the afternoon. The deputy from Jujuy, Teodoro S\u00e1nchez de Bustamante, proposed addressing the issue of independence. The secretary, Juan Jos\u00e9 Paso, then posed the decisive question: “Do you wish that the Provinces of the Union be a free and independent nation from the kings of Spain and their metropolis?” The response was unanimous. Thus, the Act of Independence was signed, proclaiming the end of the bond with the Spanish crown\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was one little problem. Some of the members of the Congress had the funny notion that perhaps the Viceroyalty should give itself up to a different European monarchy, perhaps England. \u201cTen days later, on July 19, Pedro Medrano\u2014deputy for Buenos Aires\u2014proposed a key amendment\u2026 he promoted the inclusion of a clause that made it clear that independence was also from any foreign power\u201d (ibid.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History has not always been kind to Argentina since 1816. It has had its ups and downs as a country. It has endured military coups and oppressive dictatorships. Hopefully, as we advance in the 21st<\/sup> century, the people of Argentina will recall July 9, 1816, and they\u2019ll remember that no government is legitimate without the imprimatur of the people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image today celebrates Argentina\u2019s Independence Day. Happy Independence Day, Argentina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s word of the day, courtesy of Words Coach (https:\/\/www.etymonline.com\/search?q=imprimatur), is imprimatur. Pronounced \/ \u02cc\u026am pr\u026a\u02c8m\u0251 t\u0259r \/ with the stress on the third syllable and the vowel like the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[829,238,395,284],"class_list":["post-7043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","tag-argentina","tag-dictionary","tag-etymology","tag-linguistics","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7045,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7043\/revisions\/7045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}