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My professor used the word authentification in a lecture. I have always used authentication. Is it a real word or is authentication the correct term?

RegDwigнt
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Matt Phillips
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  • Several other languages use the form with "fi" and even though the "authentication" is correct in english, "authentification" suggests itself. Also "Authentification" in this exact form comes from french. – Qwerty May 09 '17 at 09:27
  • Because of the spelling "authentication" in English, I was thinking we also write "identication" instead of "identification"... – baptx Jun 08 '23 at 16:16

2 Answers2

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Authentication is the preferred form in English. The variant authentification is acceptable, but less common—it’s often used by non-native speakers who aren’t aware that it’s less idiomatic in English, because authentification (or an analogue) is the correct form (or at least widely accepted) in many eastern & western European languages:

  • Azerbaijani: autentifikasiyası
  • Basque: autentifikazio
  • Belarusian: аўтэнтыфікацыя (autentyfikatsyja)
  • Bosnian: autentifikacija
  • Corsican: autentificazione
  • Czech: autentifikace
  • Danish: autentificering
  • Dutch: autenti(fi)catie
  • French: authentification
  • German: Authenti(fi)kation
  • Haitian: otantifikasyon
  • Kazakh: аутентификация (autyentifikatsiya)
  • Italian: autentificazione
  • Latvian: autentifikācija
  • Lithuanian: autentifikavimas
  • Luxembourgish: authentifikatioun
  • Romanian: autentificare
  • Russian: аутентификация (autyentifikatsiya)
  • Spanish: autenti(fi)cación
  • Ukrainian: автентифікація (avtyentifikatsiya)
  • Uzbek: autentifikatsiya

(Source: Google Translate—transliterations from Cyrillic are a best effort and may not be standard/accurate for all languages.)

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary and Wikipedia, authentication was the original form, via Latin authenticare, from Greek αὐθεντικός (authentikos), from αὐθέντης (authentis) “author” + -ικός (-ikos) “relating to”—cf. Latin -ic(us).

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the change to authentification seems to have happened in the mid-18th century—in English at least. It likely arose by analogy with similar words such as personification, modification, ratification, unification, &c., which all include the Latin element -fic-, from ficare, the combining form of facere, “to make”.

Manuel Bitto
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Jon Purdy
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    In German it is also spelled Authentifikation, and I see it getting mistranslated to authentification every time. – kapex Dec 05 '13 at 10:11
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    In Russian it is also spelled with fi: Аутентификация (Autentificatsiya). – Igonato Mar 19 '14 at 10:35
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    We have clients: From Austria, Germany and Spain, many of them are English speakers but they insists to use Authentification!!! – Saw Apr 10 '15 at 16:47
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    It looks like authentification has been gaining popularity; it's about 4x more popular today than it was in the 60s. That being said, authentication is still approximately 700-800 times more prevalent. Link to Google ngram viewer: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=authentification&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cauthentification%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bauthentification%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BAuthentification%3B%2Cc0 – saritonin Jun 30 '15 at 20:21
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    In Czech it is also "Autentifikace", that's why I am having such a hard time to get it right when using english. – FanaticD Jul 16 '15 at 05:54
  • If German, Russian, Spanish and Czech all use Authentification, then surely that is the correct form. – BaneStar007 Jun 08 '17 at 03:36
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    Same in Dutch ('authentificatie'), and I think that knowing it like that from another language is the most common reason people use the wrong word in English. – paddotk Nov 21 '17 at 09:20
  • @BaneStar007 It says nothing about what's correct in English – paddotk Nov 21 '17 at 09:21
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    How does 'The variant authentification is likely just a mistake by a non-native speaker' correspond to ODO's accepting it as a word without caveats? – Edwin Ashworth Dec 20 '17 at 22:17
  • -1 because both are in the OED. Which is about the same as saying they're both "real worlds." and – Arm the good guys in America Dec 20 '17 at 22:29
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    Maybe we should just start driving on the right like all those other countries ... – Will Crawford Dec 21 '17 at 10:33
  • @Clare: Alright, I changed “correct” to “preferred”. – Jon Purdy Dec 21 '17 at 16:43
  • @EdwinAshworth: I was under the impression that native speakers of English generally prefer the older variant without -fi-, and it’s more common to use the variant with -fi- among non-native speakers. If you have a better word than “mistake” then I’ll take it. – Jon Purdy Dec 21 '17 at 16:48
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    Your last paragraph (the part about how the longer variant probably entered the lexicon) is on the surface at odds with your first. I'd go with 'The variant authentification is likely just an example of a use by a non-native speaker not realising that this is less idiomatic, because ...' – Edwin Ashworth Dec 21 '17 at 18:36
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    Where is the authentification for "it’s often used by non-native speakers who aren’t aware that it’s less idiomatic in English..."? That seems absolutely unsupported. – Arm the good guys in America Dec 21 '17 at 23:10
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    No, "autentifikace" doesn't exist in Czech language, professors are throwing you out if you say it during exam on IT university. – Jaroslav Štreit Jun 18 '19 at 08:20
  • I'm sorry to inform you, but this word is simply incorrect. You are mixing the languages, no native English speaker would ever say "authentification". – sɐunıɔןɐqɐp Jul 09 '19 at 09:39
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Authentification is a French word. After a bit on research on its origin, it would seem that the word is actually composed of three parts :

  • authentique (authentic)
  • fic → faire (to do)
  • ation → action

Source: http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/authentification

RegDwigнt
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mark
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    Actually "faire" doesn't explain the "c" in there - I would guess that this came from the "c" in Latin "facere". Also your use of "action" (which comes from "agere" + "-io" suffix) is kind of misleading, I'd say it's actually the "-io" suffix at work on a form of "facere", nothing to do with the verb at root in "action". – asveikau Oct 08 '12 at 06:06
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    and the 'c' is a remnant of Latin's c in the verb facio (I do), facere, feci, factum from which faire derives. – Merk Oct 08 '12 at 06:07
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    So it is NOT an English word. This should be the accepted answer. – sɐunıɔןɐqɐp Jul 09 '19 at 09:40