permite

Forms

permite (third-person singular present permite, past participle permis, third-person subjunctive permită), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French permettre, a learned loan of the late 18th and 19th centuries;^[2][3][1] DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary name Latin permittō (“to let go, allow”) as a second source.^[2][3][1] The dictionaries weigh the two sources differently: Ciorănescu derives it from the Latin verb alone and dates it to the 19th century, Marcu takes it from Latin after the French model, and Tiktin names the Latin verb and Italian permettere.^[4][5][6]

The French verb was borrowed from Latin and refashioned after mettre.^[7][1] The Latin word is formed from per- and mittō (“to send”); it first meant “to send towards a goal”, then “to let go”, and so “to entrust” and “to allow”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1794, in the Calendariu of that year.^[6][3] The DLR quotes the passage: „Nu-i permise de gusta dulceuțele somnului” “he did not let him taste the sweetness of sleep”, already the sense “to allow”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word spread with the neologisms of the mid-19th century: Negulici listed it in 1848, in its Latin spelling, as “to give leave to do something”.^[9] A newspaper of 1848 uses it in a courtly formula, asking leave for someone to fall at the princess's feet.^[8] Pontbriant in 1862 glosses it with French “to permit, to give the liberty, the right, the authorization”, and also “to tolerate”.^[10]

The reflexive with a dative pronoun, a-și permite, means “to take the liberty, to dare”, and Șăineanu already gives the reproach prea îți permiți multe “you take too many liberties”.^[2][11] MDA2 also records the reflexive “to have something at one's disposal”, the sense of English “to afford”.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1794 – first record, in the Calendariu.^[6][3][8]
• 1848 – listed by Negulici among the new words of the language.^[9]
• 1848 – used in a polite formula in a newspaper.^[8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives it with Latin permittere as its source.^[10]
• 1929 – Șăineanu records the reflexive a-și permite “to take liberties”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To allow, permit: to let something happen or be done, not to prevent it; to consent to it.^[2][1]
2. To give someone the right, freedom or means to do something; to make something possible.^[3][12]
3. (reflexive, with a dative pronoun) To take the liberty of doing something, to dare: Nu-mi permit să vă contrazic.^[2][5]
4. (reflexive, with a dative pronoun) To afford, to have the means for something: Nu ne permitem o mașină nouă.^[3][1]

Word family

• permis

Related words

• admite
• permisie
• permisiune
• promite
• trimite
• transmite

Usage notes

The expression a-și permite prea multe means “to take too many liberties, to be insolent with someone”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 805
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 352
4. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. permite
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. permite
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. permite
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. permite
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. permittere
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 541
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 476
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. permite