cachet

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The Word of the Day for November 14 is:

cachet   \ka-SHAY\   noun
      1 : a seal used especially as a mark of official approval
     *2 : a feature or quality conferring prestige; also : 
prestige

Example sentence:
      Robin's chosen college didn't have the same cachet as an 
Ivy League school, but it had the best program for her needs.

Did you know?
      In the years before the French Revolution, a "lettre de 
cachet" was a letter, signed by both the French king and another 
officer, that was used to authorize a person's imprisonment. 
Documents such as these were usually made official by being 
marked with a seal pressed into soft wax. This seal was known in 
French as a "cachet." This word derived from the Middle French 
verb "cacher," meaning "to press" or "to hide." The "seal" sense 
of "cachet" has been used in English since the mid-17th century, 
and in the 19th century it acquired its extended sense, that of 
a distinguishing mark that is used to identify something as 
being prestigious. 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.