Imprimatur

An imprimatur sometimes abbreviated as impr., from Latin, "let it be printed" is a declaration authorizing publication of the book. The term is also applied broadly to any rank of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the Roman Catholic Church effectively dates from the dawn of printing, and is first seen in the printing and publishing centres of Germany and Venice; many secular states or cities began to require registration or approval of published workings around the same time, and in some countries such(a) restrictions still continue, though the collapse of the Soviet bloc has reduced their number.

Other senses

In commercial printing the term is used, in family with the meaning of the Latin word, forapproval by a customer or his agent, perhaps after review of a test printing, for carrying out the printing job.

As a metaphor, the word "imprimatur" is used generally of all draw of approval or endorsement, especially by an official body or a grown-up of importance, as in the newspaper headline, "Protection of domination now has courts' imprimatur", but also much more vaguely, and probably incorrectly, as in "Children, theimprimatur to family life, are being borrowed, adopted, created by artificial insemination."