inauthentic
/ɪnɔːˈθɛntɪk
/adjective
1Not in fact what it is said to be: the Holy Shroud of Turin is thought to have been proved inauthentic by radiocarbon dating...
- Protestants traditionally rejected the Apocrypha precisely because these books were fabricated and contained inauthentic material, despite the fact that these books might have been useful for evangelism.
- Developers are turning new downtowns - flush with corporate chains like GAP and Starbucks - into a cartoonish, inauthentic version of American downtowns of yesteryear.
- Imagine a generation of American teenagers starting Kabuki theatre groups in their garages, and you have some idea of the problem - inauthentic doesn't even begin to describe it.
1.1Not genuinely belonging to a style or period: baroque harpsichord pieces played on the decidedly inauthentic modern Steinway...
- It implies that there are literary forms and styles, literary subjects and interests, that are likewise inauthentic and consequently inappropriate for ethnic writers.
- A possible reason for Saigon's weakness was made evident on departure, when we discovered that the restaurateurs had never been to Vietnam - thus explaining the slightly inauthentic food on offer.
- And yet, DeMille was routinely ignored, dismissed or devalued by the critics as old fashioned, inauthentic and disingenuous.
1.2Lacking sincerity: people close to death could not waste time being inauthentic...
- That I might be one day disingenuous, inauthentic, think too much of myself, imagine that I know something more than somebody else knows and get run away - let this thing run away with me.
- But I started talking about my sex life because what is causing me problems in my work life is feeling dishonest, feeling inauthentic, and feeling insecure.
- Everyone is a caricature, manufactured and inauthentic.
Derivatives
inauthentically
- For the most part, Heidegger would say we live inauthentically, and only in certain key moments is authentic existence a possibility.
- To exist in this way is to exist inauthentically.
- Another worry that many people have is that exercising virtue may require us to suppress our natural desires and inclinations and therefore to act inauthentically.
inauthenticity
- On the other hand, if a woman artist speaks of militarism, imperialism, war and capitalism, she is still frequently rapped on her knuckles for inauthenticity, for transgressing into areas beyond her area of competence.
- Of course there are levels of inauthenticity, from reference and emulation to willful trickery, parody and outright forgery.
- What makes this very funny book a very serious one is the way it uses the ongoing question of authenticity and inauthenticity to explore some basic problems of contemporary American culture.