the.com/permission
the quietest power on earth — handed over, taken back, or never asked for at all
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.
- latin root
- permittere meant to let go, to release
- asking penalty
- requests often get more nos than apologies
- legal weight
- consent can void what would otherwise be assault
- default mode
- silence rarely counts as a yes
- reversible
- withdrawn the instant it stops being meant
declaration of independence — 1776 document that gave american colonists permission to rebel against british rule
magna carta — 1215 charter that limited king john's power and established permission-based governance in england
emancipation proclamation — 1863 executive order giving enslaved people in confederate states permission to be free