8 letters · 17 points in Scrabble
noun a distinctive characteristic or attribute
noun a mark on an article of trade to indicate its origin and authenticity
origin1721. From hall + mark, from Goldsmiths' Hall in London, the site of the assay office, official stamp of purity in gold and silver articles. The general sense of “mark of quality” first recorded 1864. Use as a verb from 1773.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0