English
permit
Permit comes from Middle French permettre ‘to permit, to allow’, and goes back to Latin permittō.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpermittō‘give up, allow’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600permettre‘to permit, to allow’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500permitten
- Englishearliest quotation 1712permit
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpermittō‘give up, allow’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600permettre‘to permit, to allow’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500permitten
- Englishearliest quotation 1712permit
Earliest quotation: 1712, Joseph Addison, Cato: “Let us not aggravate our sorrows, / But to…”
A compound of per ‘through’ + mittō ‘send’
Proto-Indo-European *per-
Proto-Italic *per ‘through, by means of’
Latin per ‘through’
Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘change’
Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- ‘exchange, remove’
Latin mītō
Latin mittō ‘send’
Every English word from Latin permittō
Another origin of permit
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEπηλαμύςpēlamús‘young tuna’uncertain
- Spanishc. 1500–presentpalometa‘dropwort’
- Englishtodaypermit
Today it means
verb To allow (something) to happen, to give permission for.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin permittō / permit