homologate

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The Word of the Day for September 27 is:

homologate   \hoh-MAH-luh-gayt\   verb
     : sanction, allow; especially : to approve or confirm officially 

Example sentence:
     "On September 24, 1991, a judgment confirming and homologating the sale 
was issued...." (_C & G Constr., Inc. v. Valteau_, Court of Appeal of La., 4th 
circuit)

Did you know?
     Who needs "homologate"? We have any number of words that mean "to 
officially approve something": "accredit," "affirm," 
"approbate," "authorize," "certify," "confirm," "endorse," "ratify," 
"sanction," "warrant," and "validate," for example. "Homologate," which has 
been around more than 400 years, has mostly been kept for special occasions; 
Scottish Law, for example, held that "a marriage contract, though defective in 
the legal solemnities, is held...  to be homologated by the subsequent marriage 
of the parties." The beauty of "homologate" is that, etymologically speaking, 
it's an easy word, consisting as it does of the familiar Greek roots "homos," 
meaning "alike" or "same," and "logos," meaning "word" or "speech" -- in other 
words, "saying the same thing," thus, "agreeing." So we need not agree with the 
Scottish bishop who in 1715 called it a "hard word."