onecht

Onecht is an adjective used in several West Germanic languages, most prominently Dutch, to denote that something is not genuine or authentic. It designates a lack of real provenance, authenticity, or legitimacy, and can be applied to objects, documents, identities, or claims.

Etymology and usage: onecht is formed from the base word echt, meaning real or genuine, with a negating prefix. In Dutch, onecht can carry a formal or juridical nuance and is often used in contexts where authenticity or legitimacy is at issue. It is distinct from nep (which more commonly connotes simple fakery) and from echt (which means genuine). In genealogical or historical contexts, onecht may describe relationships or statuses considered illegitimate, such as an onecht kind (illegitimate child) in past records.

Regional variation: while Dutch uses onecht regularly, German generally prefers unecht as the standard term for “not genuine.” Onecht can appear in older legal or formal texts in Germanic languages, but today its use is less common in everyday German.

Related concepts: the term shares semantic space with genuine versus counterfeit, authentic versus forged, and legitimate versus illegitimate. It functions primarily as a descriptive label rather than a value judgment, though it can imply implications for provenance, legality, or trustworthiness depending on context.

See also: echt, unecht, nep, counterfeit.