different between custody vs authority

English

Etymology

From Latin custodia (“a keeping, watch, guard, prison”), from custos (“a keeper, watchman, guard”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?st?di?/ (Estuary English)
• Homophone: custardy (in some dialects)

Noun

custody (usually uncountable, plural custodies)

1. The legal right to take care of something or somebody, especially children.

   The court awarded custody to the child's father.

2. Temporary possession or care of somebody else's property.

   I couldn't pay the bill and now my passport is in custody of the hotel management.

3. The state of being imprisoned or detained, usually pending a trial.

   He was mistreated while in police custody.

4. (Roman Catholicism) An area under the jurisdiction of a custos within the Order of Friars Minor.

   The Custody of the Holy Land includes the monasteries of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Jerusalem.

Derived terms

Related terms

• custodial
• custodian

Translations

Further reading

• custody in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• custody in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• custody at OneLook Dictionary Search

Further reading

• Custódia [1], Priberam Dictionary]

English

Alternative forms

• authourity, authoritie, autority, auctoritie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctorite, autorite (“authority, book or quotation that settles an argument”), from Old French auctorité, from Latin stem of auct?rit?s (“invention, advice, opinion, influence, command”), from auctor (“master, leader, author”). For the presence of the h, compare the etymology of author.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???????ti/, /???????ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??????ti/, /??????ti/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???t???ti/
• Hyphenation: au?thor?i?ty
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)

1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.
3. (countable) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
   • 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman

     To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

4. Government-owned agency which runs a revenue-generating activity.

   New York Port Authority

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• have something on good authority

References

• authority at OneLook Dictionary Search
• authority in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• authority in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.