Authenticity is the quality of being genuine. Doubt the authenticity, verify the authenticity, a question of authenticity.
For an object it is a factual question that experts and laboratories can settle. Applied to a person or a performance it means something much vaguer — being true to yourself — and it has become one of the most demanded and least definable qualities in public life.
1nounauthenticityThe quality of being genuine.
“The film's authenticity comes from using real soldiers rather than actors.”
authenticity is a quality.
Ancient Greek
αὐθεντικός — authentic, genuine
Latin
authenticus
Old French
autentique
Middle English
authentik
English
authentic
English, today
authenticity
From authentic + -ity. authentic comes from Middle English authentik, from Old French autentique, from Latin authenticus, from Ancient Greek αὐθεντικός (“authentic, genuine”), from Ancient Greek αὐθέντης (“perpetrator, murderer, absolute ruler”). a doublet of effendi.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA