Identification
/aɪˌdɛn.tɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/noun
The act of recognizing, proving, or establishing who or what someone or something is.
Did you know?Identification ultimately comes from Latin idem, meaning “the same,” so at its deepest root it’s about collapsing difference and declaring two things one.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁ey-
“to go, move; later developed in Latin into forms expressing repetition and sameness”
Latin
Latin
idem
“the same, that very one”
Latin
Latin
identitas
“sameness, identity”
Late Latin
Latin
identificare
“to make the same or identify”
14th Century
Middle French
identification
“the action of identifying or making identical”
Late 16th Century
English
identification
“the act of identifying or being identified”