endorse
pronunciation
How to pronounce endorse in British English:
UK [ɪnˈdɔːs]
How to pronounce endorse in American English:
US [ɪnˈdɔːrs]
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- Verb:
- be behind; approve of
- give support or one's approval to
- guarantee as meeting a certain standard
- of documents or cheques
Word Origin
- endorse
- endorse: [16] To endorse something is literally to write ‘on the back’ of it. The word comes from medieval Latin indorsāre, a compound verb formed from the prefix in- ‘in’ and dorsum ‘back’ (source of English dorsal, doss, and dossier). (An earlier English version of the word was endoss [14], acquired via Old French endosser, which died out in the 17th century.)=> dorsal, doss, dossier
- endorse (v.)
- c. 1400, endosse "confirm or approve" (a charter, bill, etc.), originally by signing or writing on the back of the document, from Old French endosser (12c.), literally "to put on the back," from en- "put on" (see en- (1)) + dos "back," from Latin dossum, variant of dorsum "back" (see dorsal). Assimilated 16c. in form to Medieval Latin indorsare. Figurative sense of "confirm, approve" is recorded in English first in 1847. Related: Endorsed; endorsing. You can endorse, literally, a cheque or other papers, &, metaphorically, a claim or argument, but to talk of endorsing material things other than papers is a solecism. [Fowler]
Example
- 1. Second , the bible does not clearly endorse one form of marriage over another .
- 2. Last week steven chu , new energy secretary , seemed to endorse this idea .
- 3. But that was unnecessary , as western leaders rushed to endorse the iec 's interpretation .
- 4. Mr brown believes the imf will endorse a global bank levy before its april meeting in washington .
- 5. Mr sadr has spoken by telephone to mr allawi to try to persuade him to endorse and join a maliki-led block .