bona fide

1. 1
   genuineadjective

   Genuine and truly what it is claimed or appears to be, not counterfeit.

   After a decade of bit parts, she is now a bona fide movie star.

   The auction house had the signature examined to confirm the manuscript was bona fide.

   Similargenuine, authentic

   Oppositecounterfeit, bogus

   Note

   Good faith has moved here from motives to identity: what is offered in good faith is honestly what it claims to be, which keeps this meaning close to the "sincere" adjective. A bona fide coin, captain or movie star is the real thing. It stands before a noun or after a linking verb, as in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000): "But you ain't bona fide!" Its opposites are bogus and counterfeit.

2. 2
   adjective

   Sincere and in good faith, with no deception and no hidden motive behind it.

   The court found that the tenant had acted on a bona fide belief that the lease was still valid.

   The union accused management of stalling instead of making a bona fide attempt to settle the dispute.

   Similarsincere

   Oppositeinsincere, dishonest

   Note

   This adjective judges intentions rather than objects, so it attaches to acts and states of mind: an attempt, a reversion to a devout habit of mind. Thorstein Veblen, in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), sets a bona fide reversion against "protective mimicry", which shows what the word rules out: a creed worn for appearances. It takes no more or most, and its opposite keeps the Latin shape: mala fide.

3. 3
   adverb

   Genuinely and sincerely, in good faith, rather than as a pretense or for show.

   The gallery insisted it had bought the painting bona fide, without any reason to suspect it was stolen.

   Few delegates believed the treaty had been signed bona fide by a government already preparing for war.

   Similarsincerely, genuinely, honestly, legitimately

   Oppositeinsincerely, dishonestly, fraudulently

   Note

   The Latin bonā fidē, "in good faith", was borrowed unchanged, and in the adverb it still says how something is done, so it follows the verb or participle. Laurence Sterne writes of knots "made bona fide" in Tristram Shandy (1761); Joseph Priestley, in Letters to Burke (1791), of articles not "subscribed bonâ fide", with a circumflex over the a. Placed before a noun, it becomes an adjective instead: a bona fide attempt.

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