consent English · revision 5725

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1200|origins=la consentio}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kənˈsent/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The verb is Middle English consenten, [[bor|fro|consentir|t=to agree, comply]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024) a learned borrowing of [[la|cōnsentīre|t=to agree, accord]], literally “to feel together”,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) from [[m|la|com-|alt=con-|t=together]] and [[m|la|sentīre|t=to feel, think]] (see [[sense]]).^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) The noun is from Old French consente, from the verb.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(NODE 1998) Etymonline notes that the change from “feeling together” to “agreeing, giving permission” seems to have happened in French before the word reached English.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ To agree to what another proposes: probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the ''Ancrene Riwle''; before 1225 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) To agree in opinion is from before 1300.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The noun, voluntary acceptance of what is proposed, and also agreement in opinion, is from about 1300.^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988) In Middle English it sometimes had a bad sense, yielding to sinful desire or connivance.^(Etymonline) ''Silence gives consent'' is a proverb from 1611 in the OED, with an earlier form in 1380.^(OED 1989) The ''age of consent'', at which consent to certain acts is legally valid, is from the 1650s.^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) The sense of things agreeing or being in harmony (1540) is obsolete.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1200 – to agree to.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * a1300 – the noun.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1540 – of things, to harmonize (obsolete).^(OED 1989)

+ * 1611 – ''silence gives consent''.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1650s – ''age of consent''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Permission for something to happen, or [[agreement]] to do it.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Agreement in [[opinion]]: ''by common consent''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To give [[permission]] or agree to something.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(archaic)'' To agree in opinion.^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[consenter]]

+ * [[consentingly]]

+ * [[preconsent]]

+ * [[reconsent]]

+ * [[consentual]]

+ * [[consentaneous]]

+ * [[nonconsent]]

+ * [[age of consent]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sense]]

+ * [[consensus]]

+ * [[sentiment]]

+ * [[assent]]

+ * [[dissent]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}