In a daily word email I was reading at a friend's I saw the word autopisty meaning self-authentication. Apart from the fact that when I first saw the word I assumed it meant getting oneself drunk, what is "self-authentication"?

this word of the day??

the worthless word for the day is: axiopisty

[fr. Gk axio-pistos < axios, worthy + pistos,
to be trusted] /aks ee AH pih stee/
obs. rare : the quality that makes something believable: trustworthiness

"She does not only attribute to their sacred authors
the axiopisty, a credibility fully merited, but also
the autopisty; that is to say a right to be believed
independently of their circumstances or of their
personal qualities..."
- Louis Gaussen, Theopneusty (1844)

"How can you not suspect the axiopisty of someone
who has been convicted of a white-collar crime?"
- New Straits Times, (Kuala Lumpur) July 1, 1996

bonus: autopisty - self-authentication

-tsuwm
http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd

that's the one. Do you get it too?

get it? I am it.

in any case, the quote contrasts the two words nicely.

-tsuwm

Sorry! I guess that makes you the one to ask then

by the way, Theopneusty can be defined as 'divine inspiration,' and that's what Gaussen is writing about - she's saying the writers (of the Holy Scriptures) are not only trustworthy, but that their writing is credible in itself.

-joe (I don't buy 'em, I just 'splain 'em) friday

Wow, and you're psychic too: from the first post I'd been planning to ask what Theopneusty was.

In the law, self-authentication refers to evidence which is authenticated by its own contents rather than through testimony or other evidence.

For example, under the Michigan Rules of Evidence, in a trial in which the condition of an intersection is at issue, a photograph of the intersection can be valuable evidence, but to admit the photo, somebody must testify that the photo is what it purports to be: a photograph of the intersection. Often, the person authenticating the photo will be the person who took the photo. But there is a list of items that don't require such supportive testimony, including certain public documents under seal, certified copies of public records, official publications, newspapers and periodicals, and commercial papers. A certified copy of somebody's driving record, including that his license has been suspended, can be presented as evidence of the driver's status without the need for somebody from the driver's license office to come and testify to the record.

That driver shouldda stopped at that intersection stop sign.