Genuine means the thing really is what it claims to be. A genuine Rolex rather than a copy from a market stall, genuine leather, a genuine signature at the bottom of the page.
Used of feelings and people it means honestly meant, with nothing put on: genuine surprise, a genuine offer of help, he is a genuine man. The opposite splits in two — fake and counterfeit for objects, false and insincere for feelings. Genuine parts are the ones made by the original manufacturer, which is why the word covers half the shelves in a car repair shop. Say it JEN-yoo-in, with the ending rhyming on in rather than on wine. The noun genuineness is clumsy, so authenticity does that job instead.
1adjectiveauthenticReally what it is said to be; not a copy.
“An expert confirmed that the painting was genuine.”
2adjectivegenuineHonestly felt or honestly meant.
“There was genuine warmth in the way she greeted him.”
3adjectiveopenOf a person: honest and open, without pretence.
“He struck everyone as a genuine man with nothing to hide.”
Also accepted in games: real, authentic
Latin genuīnus meant innate, native, natural — a quality you were born with, from the same root that gave genus and generate, a root about birth and kind. Something genuine is what it was born as, rather than what it was later dressed up to look like.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵenh₁-
Latin
genuīnus
English, today
genuine
Borrowed from Latin genuīnus. From Latin genuīnus (“innate, native, natural”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA