means The act of allowing someone to do something, or the formal consent that grants them the freedom to do it.

from From Latin permittere, "to let through, let go, allow" — a blend of per- ("through") and mittere ("to send, let go"). The same mittere fathered a whole family of English words about sending and releasing: mission, missile, dismiss, transmit. So at its root, permission is literally letting something pass through — a gate swinging open. It reached English in the late Middle Ages by way of Old French.