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A rare sense, giving up or abandonment, is from 1677 and is obsolete.[5] A permission as a countable thing, a written authorization, is from 1718.[5] The related permissible is from before 1430, in Lydgate,[3] and permissive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
- The act of allowing someone to do something; consent.
- 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
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin