different between authority vs permission

English

Alternative forms

• authourity, authoritie, autority, auctoritie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English auctorite, autorite (“authority, book or quotation that settles an argument”), from Old French auctorité, from Latin stem of auct?rit?s (“invention, advice, opinion, influence, command”), from auctor (“master, leader, author”). For the presence of the h, compare the etymology of author.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /???????ti/, /???????ti/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??????ti/, /??????ti/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /???t???ti/
• Hyphenation: au?thor?i?ty
• Rhymes: -???ti

Noun

authority (countable and uncountable, plural authorities)

1. (uncountable) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

2. (used in singular or plural form) Persons in command; specifically, government.
3. (countable) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
   • 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman

     To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

4. Government-owned agency which runs a revenue-generating activity.

   New York Port Authority

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• have something on good authority

References

• authority at OneLook Dictionary Search
• authority in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• authority in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French permission, from Latin permissio. Mostly replaced native English leave, from Old English l?af (“permission”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: p?rm?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /p??m???n/
• (General American) enPR: p?rm?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /p??m???n/
• Rhymes: -???n
• Hyphenation: per?mis?sion

Noun

permission (countable and uncountable, plural permissions)

1. authorisation; consent (especially formal consent from someone in authority)

   Sire, do I have your permission to execute this traitor?

2. The act of permitting.
3. (computing) Flags or access control lists pertaining to a file that dictate who can access it, and how.

   I used the "chmod" command to change the file's permission.

Antonyms

• prohibition

Derived terms

Related terms

• permit

Translations

Verb

permission (third-person singular simple present permissions, present participle permissioning, simple past and past participle permissioned)

1. (transitive) To grant or obtain authorization for.

See also

• clearance

Further reading

• File system permissions on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• impression

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin permissi?, permissi?nem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.mi.sj??/

Noun

permission f (plural permissions)

1. permission

Related terms

• permettre

Further reading

• “permission” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).