authentic Look up authentic at Dictionary.com
mid-14c., "authoritative," from O.Fr. autentique (13c.), from M.L. authenticus, from Gk. authentikos "original, genuine, principal," from authentes "one acting on one's own authority," from autos "self" + hentes "doer, being." Sense of "entitled to acceptance as factual" is first recorded mid-14c. Authentic implies that the contents of the thing in question correspond to the facts and are not fictitious; genuine implies that the reputed author is the real one. Related: Authenticity (1650s, in form authentity).
authenticate (v.) Look up authenticate at Dictionary.com
1650s, "verify, establish the credibility of," from M.L. authenticatus, pp. of authenticare, from authenticus (see authentic). Authentication (1788).
cuckold Look up cuckold at Dictionary.com
mid-13c., from O.Fr. cucuault, from cucu (see cuckoo) + pejorative suffix. So called from the female bird's alleged habit of changing mates, or her authentic habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest. The verb is 1580s, from the noun. Related: Cuckoldry (1520s).
checker Look up checker at Dictionary.com
c.1314, "a chessboard," aphetic of O.Fr. eschekier "chessboard," from M.L. scaccarium (see check). British prefers chequer, but the U.S. form is more authentic. Checkers, Amer.Eng. name for the game known in Britain as draughts, dates from 1712. Checkered "marked like a chessboard" is from 1486.
dandelion Look up dandelion at Dictionary.com
1513, from M.Fr. dent de lion, lit. "lion's tooth" (from its toothed leaves), transl. of M.L. dens leonis. Other folk names, like tell-time refer to the custom of telling the time by blowing the white seed (the number of puffs required to blow them all off supposedly being the number of the hour), or to the plant's more authentic diuretic qualities, preserved in M.E. piss-a-bed and Fr. pissenlit.
y- Look up y- at Dictionary.com
perfective prefix, in y-clept, etc.; a deliberate archaism, introduced by Spenser and his imitators, representing an authentic M.E. prefix, from O.E. ge-, originally meaning "with, together" but later a completive or perfective element, from P.Gmc. *ga-. It is still living in Ger. and Du. ge-, and survives, disguised, in some Eng. words (e.g. alike, aware).