Noun

(label) The power to enforce rules or give orders.

* 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)

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.

(label) Persons in command; specifically, government.

*{{quote-book, year=1927, author= F. E. Penny

, chapter=4, title= Pulling the Strings , passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities . A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Legal highs: A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}

(label) 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.

Noun

(en noun)

A learned person in India; someone with knowledge of Sanskrit, philosophy, religion and law; a Hindu scholar.

* 1888 , (Rudyard Kipling), ‘On the City Wall’, In Black and White , Folio Society 2005, p. 430:

Pundits in black gowns, with spectacles on their noses and undigested wisdom in their insides; bearded headmen of the wards; [...] all these people and more also you might find in the white room.

(historical) A native surveyor in British India, trained to carry out clandestine surveillance beyond British borders.

* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 295:

At every hundredth pace the Pundit would automatically slip one bead. Each complete circuit of the rosary thus represented ten thousand paces.

A self-professed expert in a particular field, especially as called upon to provide comment or opinion in the media; a commentator, a critic.

* 2006 , The Observer , 4 Jun 2006:

This week we introduce Jenny Walker, who will be The Observer's expert pundit for the duration of the World Cup.