ABSTRACT
Derived from the old French auctorité (authority, prestige, right, permission) and thirteenth-century French autorite (book or quotation that settles an argument), and originally the Latin auctoritas (influence, advice, command), Autoritet in Danish denotes the right to demand and the ability to obtain obedience. It can also signify the ability to influence the actions or understanding of others, which confers authority (Myndighed ) by dint of character. It can also refer to those persons or institutions that possess authority. Myndig can mean influential, powerful, respectable, commanding, and, in the context of having come of age in a legal sense, mature.1 In Kierkegaard’s 1833 edition of Molbech’s Danish Dictionary, Myndighed signifies several things. First, it can refer to qualities that connote authority such as power or prestige. It can also refer to behavior or to speech that seems to presuppose authority, as demonstrated in the Gospels by Christ and the apostles.2
