Definition of "bona fide"

But by the knots I am speaking of, may it please your reverences to believe, that I mean good, honest, devilish tight, hard knots, made bona fide, as Obadiah made his; […]

1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter X, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], pages 29–30

Let thinking people, then, judge what must be the fate of a church, whose fundamental doctrines are disbelieved by men of sense and inquiry, whose articles are well known not to be subscribed bonâ fide by those who officiate in it […] .

1791, Joseph Priestley, Letters to Burke, section XII

It is impossible to say how far this adherence to a creed is a bona fide reversion to a devout habit of mind, and how far it is to be classed as a case of protective mimicry assumed for the purpose of an outward assimilation to canons of reputability borrowed from foreign ideals.

1899, Thorstein Veblen, “Devout Observances”, in The Theory of the Leisure Class […] ‎, New York: Macmillan

To Billy Byrne, then, Pesita was a real general, and Billy, himself, a bona fide captain.

1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Mucker‎, All-Story Cavalier Weekly

What intrigues us is what will happen when the ersatzes for the ersatzes come along. Will characters start substituting for actors, bona fide dogs for barking ladies; will people start looking at people again instead of television and at nature instead of at documentaries?

1955 June 30, “Ersatzes for Ersatzes”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎, volume 47, number 182

Ulysses Everett McGill: I am the only daddy you got! I’m the damn pater familias!Wharvey Gal: But you ain’t bona fide!

2000, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, O Brother, Where Art Thou?‎