allowable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English allouable,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman alouable, also allowable, and Middle French allouable (“permissible”),^[3][4][5][6] formed from alouer (“to allot, assign; to approve”), the source of allow, and -able.^[3][5][4][7] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from about 1270 for "permissible" and, in law, "admissible";^[8][3] in later French it survived only for an item that can be entered in an account.^[3] The OED compares Medieval Latin allocabilis (“legitimate, admissible”), used in British sources from the late 13th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Worthy of praise, commendable: about 1400, in the C text of Langland's Piers Plowman.^[3][5] The Middle English Dictionary has the same sense before 1400 in a Wycliffite tract, in the phrase alowable byfore God.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The earliest sense, "praiseworthy", lasted until about 1700.^[3][6][5] In the 1440s Reginald Pecock used the word for "acceptable, satisfactory" and for "admissible, valid" in argument.^[3][2] From 1445 it meant "permitted, not forbidden", the main sense today.^[3][5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as what may be admitted without contradiction, and then as lawful or not forbidden.^[9] Later senses are technical: from 1849 an amount that is tolerable within set limits; from 1865 it was also an expense that may be set against income for tax.^[3] In the 20th century the word became a noun in American engineering (1911) and in the oil industry, where an allowable is the most oil a well may legally produce in a given period (1932).^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – praiseworthy, commendable (obsolete after 1702).^[3]
• c. 1443 – acceptable, satisfactory; admissible, valid.^[3][2]
• 1445 – permitted, not forbidden.^[3]
• 1849 – tolerable within prescribed limits.^[3]
• 1865 – of an expense, deductible from taxable income.^[3]
• 1911 – noun, in engineering, the greatest safe value of a property of a material.^[3]
• 1932 – noun, the quantity of oil a well may legally produce.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Permitted or allowed; not forbidden or improper: Is it allowable to bring a guest to the dinner?^[10][4][3]
2. Of a cost or expense, able to be deducted from income in working out tax.^[10][3][4]
3. Acceptable within set limits: the allowable load on a bridge.^[3]
4. (obsolete, 1400–1702) Worthy of praise; laudable.^[3][4][6]

Noun

1. In the oil industry, the quantity of oil that a well may legally produce in a given period.^[4][3]
2. (engineering) The greatest value of a property of a material or structure at which it can be expected to stay safe.^[3]

Word family

• allowably
• allowableness
• unallowable

Related words

• allow
• allowance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins