Etymologically
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consent

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kənˈsent/[1]

Etymology

The verb is Middle English consenten, borrowed from Old French consentir (“to agree, comply”),[2][3][4][5] a learned borrowing of Latin cōnsentīre (“to agree, accord”), literally “to feel together”,[3][2] from con- (“together”) and sentīre (“to feel, think”) (see sense).[3][2][4] The noun is from Old French consente, from the verb.[3][4][6] Etymonline notes that the change from “feeling together” to “agreeing, giving permission” seems to have happened in French before the word reached English.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To agree to what another proposes: probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle; before 1225 in the OED.[3][7] To agree in opinion is from before 1300.[7]

Semantic evolution

The noun, voluntary acceptance of what is proposed, and also agreement in opinion, is from about 1300.[2][7][3] In Middle English it sometimes had a bad sense, yielding to sinful desire or connivance.[2] Silence gives consent is a proverb from 1611 in the OED, with an earlier form in 1380.[7] The age of consent, at which consent to certain acts is legally valid, is from the 1650s.[2][8] The sense of things agreeing or being in harmony (1540) is obsolete.[7]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – to agree to.[3]
  • a1300 – the noun.[7]
  • 1540 – of things, to harmonize (obsolete).[7]
  • 1611 – silence gives consent.[7]
  • 1650s – age of consent.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Permission for something to happen, or agreement to do it.
  2. Agreement in opinion: by common consent.

Verb

  1. To give permission or agree to something.
  2. (archaic) To agree in opinion.

Word family

  • consenter
  • consentingly
  • preconsent
  • reconsent
  • consentual
  • consentaneous
  • nonconsent
  • age of consent
  • sense
  • consensus
  • sentiment
  • assent
  • dissent

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press