We have been using this word for years as a shorthand for one of the core objectives of our entrepreneurial conservation work: collaborating with communities to assist in the retention of heritage that has meaning, and that those communities feel should remain essentially as it was. It is therefore interesting to consult OED (finally) on exactly what this means.
Top of the list of entries:
a. Of authority, authoritative (properly as possessing original or inherent authority, but also as duly authorized); entitled to obedience or respect.
Nice, rich history of usages for that definition:
1340 R. Rolle Pricke of Conscience 7116 Saint Austyn‥Whase wordes er auctentyke.1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Isa. Prol., No goostli vndurstondyng is autentik, no but it be groundid in the text opynli.a1420 T. Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 125 The bible, Whiche is a booke autentyke and credible.1595 G. Chapman Ouids Banquet of Sence (1639) 31 Let autentique Reason be our guide.1641 Naunton’s Fragmenta Regalia sig. G, We have an authentique rule.1682 J. Norris tr. Hierocles Golden Verses 20 To esteem their Sentences as authentick as Laws.1724 Swift Let. to Molesworth 17 Some short plain Authentick Tract might be published for the Information both of Petty and Grand-Jurys.1849 W. Fitzgerald tr. W. Whitaker Disputation 332 That is called authentic, which is sufficient to itself, which commends, sustains, proves itself, and hath credit and authority from itself.
Much further down in the entries, this:
5. Real, actual, ‘genuine.’ (Opposed to imaginary, pretended.) arch.
1490 Caxton tr. Eneydos vii. 32 To be closed and enuyronned wyth wallis autentyke.1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. Concl. 188 An Authentick discouragement to the promotion of the Arts and Sciences.a1704 T. Brown Epigr. in Wks. (1707) I. ii. 19 Well might the sage Philosophers of old Their justling Atoms for authentick hold.1845 T. Carlyle in O. Cromwell Lett. & Speeches I. 114 A faint authentic twilight.
The word “genuine” is probably closest to a synonym in current usage by most people, but the word means so much more.
Organikos 