let

Pronunciation

• IPA: /let/^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to allow” is inherited from Middle English leten,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English lǣtan, Anglian lētan (“to allow; to leave behind, leave undone; to bequeath; to rent”),^[5][2][6] from Proto-Germanic *lētaną,^[2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *lēd-, an extended form of *lē- (“to let go, slacken”).^[5][7][8] Its cognates include Old Frisian lēta, Old Saxon lātan, Dutch laten, Old High German lāzzan (modern German lassen), Old Norse láta and Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (lētan),^[2][5][9] and outside Germanic Latin lassus (“weary”), Ancient Greek ληδεῖν (lēdeîn, “to be weary”) and Lithuanian leisti (“to let”).^[10][4][8] It is related to late;^[11][9][12] Hoad takes the primary sense to be “let go through weariness”.^[11][5] The shortening of the vowel has not been satisfactorily explained.^[5][10] The archaic verb “to hinder” and the noun let “obstruction” are a different word, Middle English letten, from Old English lettan (“to hinder, delay”), literally “to make late”, from the base of læt (“slow, late”);^[5][2][3][9] it is related to Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (latjan, “to hinder, make late”) and German verletzen (“to hurt”).^[10][4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, to allow; to leave behind, leave undone; to let go; to put out to rent (before 725).^[10][5][14]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline quotes Hensleigh Wedgwood on the idea of slackening at the root of both uses: to let someone do something is to loosen a restraint, while being slack oneself gave the sense of delaying or omitting to do.^[5] Weekley and Etymonline compare French laisser “to let”, from Latin laxāre “to slacken”.^[13][5] The Old English senses “to leave behind”, “to leave undone, omit” and “to bequeath” are long obsolete,^[15][9] as are “to regard as” and “to behave, make as though”.^[15][5] The sense of handing over land for rent is already Old English,^[13][15] and let “to allow the escape of” (blood, tears) dates from late Old English.^[5][15] Let is also used as an auxiliary in the imperative to introduce a proposal or command, as in let us pray.^[3][16][17] To award a contract after bids dates from 1850.^[15] The noun let “a letting for rent” is chiefly British, from 1684 but rare before the 19th century.^[14][9][4] The verb “to hinder” survives mainly in the legal phrase without let or hindrance,^[9][18] and in tennis, where a let is a stroke that must be replayed, a sense first recorded in 1871 (1819 in the Historical Thesaurus, of fives and rackets).^[10][15]

Timeline

• before 725 – Old English lǣtan, to allow.^[10]
• c. 888 – lettan, to hinder.^[14][10]
• 1106 – leten.^[2]
• c. 1175 – noun, a hindrance.^[14]
• 1490 – to cause, as in let me know.^[15]
• 1684 – noun, a letting for rent.^[14]
• 1819 – in fives and rackets, an obstruction requiring a replay.^[15]
• 1850 – to award a contract.^[15]
• 1855 – intransitive, to be let.^[15]
• 1871 – a let in tennis.^[10]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To allow; not to prevent: let them borrow the car.
2. To cause to: let me know.
3. Used in the imperative to express a proposal, request or command: let's have a drink.
4. Used to express an assumption in a calculation: let x equal y.
5. Used to express a warning or challenge: let him try.
6. To allow to pass, enter or leave; to release: let out a scream.
7. (chiefly Britain) To rent out (a room or property).
8. To award (a contract), especially after bids.
9. (archaic) To hinder or prevent.

Noun

1. An obstacle or hindrance, now chiefly in without let or hindrance.
2. (tennis etc.) A stroke or service that does not count and must be replayed.
3. (Britain) An act of letting a property; a property that is let.

Related words

• late
• lassitude
• alas
• inlet
• outlet
• lenient

Usage notes

Random House notes that let us introduces a suggestion or request in all kinds of speech and writing, while the contraction let's occurs mostly in informal use.^[17] Wiktionary points out that let me go to the store can be read either as a request to be allowed to go or as a first-person proposal.^[19]

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 Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
18. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
19. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org