Etymologically
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permettere

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Pronunciation

  • /perˈmet.te.re/[1]

Forms

permettere (first-person singular present permétto, first-person singular past historic permìsi, past participle permésso, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include Old Italian permetere, Old Italian permittere, Old Italian permictere and Old Italian premetere.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin permittō (“to let go through; to allow, leave to”), from per- and mittō (“to send, let go”).[3][4][5][1] Nocentini classes it as a borrowing from Latin, with the stressed vowel taken over from mettere, the inherited outcome of the simple verb; the GDLI too describes it as remade on that verb.[4][2] GRADIT and Sabatini–Coletti read the prefix as an intensive, while DEI glosses the Latin verb as “to send through, let go”.[5][6][7] The same Latin verb gave French permettre, Old Occitan permetre, Spanish permitir and Portuguese permitir.[4][8]

De Vaan traces the simple verb to Proto-Italic *meit-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to exchange, remove”): the sense went from “exchange” to “give, bestow” and then to “let go, send”.[9][1] The Latin participle permissus and its noun permissiō reached Italian by the learned route as permesso and permissione.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record, for “to give leave, make possible”, is in Giordano da Pisa, who died in 1311.[3][5] The GDLI quotes his sermon: “Queste cose egli non può fare, se non quanto Iddio gli permette” (he cannot do these things except as far as God allows him).[2] Zingarelli dates the verb to about 1261.[10]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio and Dante already use the verb for giving leave, and the early texts often have God as the one who permits.[11][2] Courtesy formulas asking leave to do or say something are recorded before 1755, in Scipione Maffei.[3] The pronominal permettersi “to take the liberty” appears in 1671 in Francesco Buonvisi, and purists objected to it as a French turn of phrase not found in the classics;[3] Luca Serianni notes that its success belongs to the 19th century.[3] Today permettersi also means “to be able to afford”, as in non posso permettermelo.[10][12][13]

The noun permesso “permission” is recorded before 1411, its military sense “short leave” in 1824, and the polite è permesso? “may I come in?” in Goldoni in 1761.[3] Permissione (1305–1306) was still alive in the 19th century and then fell out of use, while permissivo goes back to about 1300 and permissibile to before 1580.[3] The literary sense “to entrust” survives in Leopardi and Vico.[5][14]

Timeline

  • About 1261 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.[10]
  • About 1300 – Permissivo is recorded.[3]
  • Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses permettere for giving leave.[3]
  • Before 1411 – The noun permesso is recorded.[3]
  • 1671 – Francesco Buonvisi uses permettersi for taking a liberty.[3]
  • Before 1755 – Scipione Maffei records courtesy formulas with the verb.[3]
  • 1761 – Goldoni has è permesso?.[3]
  • 1824 – Permesso is recorded for military leave.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To allow, permit or let someone do something: I suoi genitori non le permettono di uscire la sera.[5][14][6]
  2. To authorize officially: La questura non ha permesso il corteo.[5][10]
  3. In polite formulas, to ask leave: Permette che le chieda una cosa?, or simply Permette?[5][14][6]
  4. To make possible: Il nuovo ponte permette di attraversare il fiume in pochi minuti; often in the gerund, tempo permettendo “weather permitting”.[5][14][10]
  5. To tolerate, to let something happen: Non permetterò che parlino così di mio fratello.[5][14][13]
  6. (literary) To entrust.[5][14][10]
  7. permettersi: to be able to afford: Quest'anno non possiamo permetterci le vacanze.[10][12][13]
  8. permettersi: to take the liberty, to dare: Come ti permetti di aprire la mia posta?[14][10][6]

Word family

  • permesso
  • permissione
  • permissivo
  • permissibile

Usage notes

Permettere is conjugated like mettere (past historic permisi, past participle permesso) and takes avere; the pronominal permettersi takes essere.[14][10][1] The object of the permission is introduced by di with the infinitive or by che with the subjunctive.[14][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 63
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2859
  8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier