permission

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /pəˈmɪʃ.ən/, US /pɚˈmɪʃ.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English permissioun, borrowed from Middle French permission and directly from Latin permissiō (“a giving up, a yielding; permission”),^[2][3] a noun of action from the past participle of permittere “to let go, allow”,^[2][4] the source of permit.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of permitting, consent: about 1410 in Barnhart, the early 15th century in Etymonline, 1432–50 in the OED.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

A rare sense, giving up or abandonment, is from 1677 and is obsolete.^[5] A permission as a countable thing, a written authorization, is from 1718.^[5] The related permissible is from before 1430, in Lydgate,^[3] and permissive from before 1475.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1410 – the act of permitting.^[3]
• 1677 – giving up (obsolete).^[5]
• 1718 – a written authorization.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The act of allowing someone to do something; consent.
2. A formal document or authorization that allows something.

Word family

• permissioned
• nonpermission
• permissible
• permissive

Related words

• permit
• mission
• remission

Usage notes

The AHD groups permission with authorization, consent, leave, license and sanction, nouns for approval of a course of action given by someone in authority, as in ask leave to respond.^[6]

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin