counterfeit

Etymology

From Middle English counterfeit, countrefet, from Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait.

adj

1. False, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.
   counterfeit purpose
   This counterfeit watch looks like the real thing, but it broke a week after I bought it.
2. Inauthentic.
   counterfeit sympathy
3. Assuming the appearance of something; deceitful; hypocritical.

noun

1. A non-genuine article; a fake.
   ‘Revelation’, to a philosopher such as Plotinus, was not merely irrational: it led to second-rate counterfeits of traditional academic philosophical culture. It was as if the inhabitants of an underdeveloped country were to seek to catch up with western technology by claiming to have learnt nuclear physics through dreams and oracles. 1971, Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity: AD 150—750, Thames & Hudson LTD, published 2013, page 53
2. One who counterfeits; a counterfeiter.
3. (obsolete) That which resembles another thing; a likeness; a portrait; a counterpart.
4. (obsolete) An impostor; a cheat.

verb

1. (transitive) To falsely produce what appears to be official or valid; to produce a forged copy of.
   to counterfeit the signature of another, coins, notes, etc.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To produce a faithful copy of.
   The title page of White's original album includes a descriptive title page that identifies the contents as “the pictures of sondry things collected and counterfeited according to the truth," 2008, Michael Gaudio, Engraving the savage: the New World and techniques of civilization, page xii
3. (transitive, obsolete) To feign; to mimic.
   to counterfeit the voice of another person
   Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee / At all his jokes, for many a joke had he. 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Village Schoolmaster
4. (transitive, poker, usually "be counterfeited") Of a turn or river card, to invalidate a player's hand by making a better hand on the board.