imprimatur

noun

1. An official license to publish or print something, especially when censorship applies.

   “The Cheats · A Comedy · Written in the Year, M.DC.LXII. Imprimatur, Roger L'estrange. Nov. 5. 1663. By John Wilson”

   “Sometimes 5 Imprimaturs are ſeen together dialogue-wiſe in the Piatza of one Title page, complementing and ducking each other with their ſhav'n reverences, whether the Author, who ſtands by in perplexity at the foot of his Epiſtle, ſhall to the Preſſe or to the ſpunge.”

2. (broadly)Any mark of official approval.

   “Children, the final imprimatur to family life, are being borrowed, adopted, created by artificial insemination.”

   “Even with the imprimatur of Tynan and Hobson, the play was not an instant hit.”

   “The author suggests that Grace is hoping to meet at church a respectable marriage candidate who will have the imprimatur of her pastor and the church community.”