permissiveadj.n.
/pəˈmɪsɪv/, U.S. /pərˈmɪsɪv/ A. adj.
1.
a. Permitted, allowed, tolerated; not forbidden or hindered; done with permission; acting with permission; (also) optional.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [adjective] > permitted or allowed
permissive1467
licit1483
licentiatec1500
permitted1553
allowable?1555
allowed1572
licent1606
permissory1858
1467–8 Plea & Mem. Rolls London Guildhall No. A 88.2 Without any waste of the same, voluntarie or permissif, in any wise to be doon.
c1500 (?a1475) Assembly of Gods (1896) 1731 (MED) The dedely enemy of mankynde, By hys power permyssyue, entryd the ymages Withyn the temples to make the pepyll blynde.
1586 J. Ferne Blazon of Gentrie 239 For that which is lawfull with Kings is not permissiue to subjects.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost viii. 435 Thus I embold'nd spake, and freedom us'd Permissive, and acceptance found. View more context for this quotation
1766 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 281 Waste is either voluntary, which is a crime of commission, as by pulling down a house; or it is permissive.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 319 At present the officers are known at best to be only permissive, and on their good behaviour. View more context for this quotation
1844 R. W. Emerson Ess. 2nd Ser. i. 8 The poet is not any permissive potentate, but is emperor in his own right.
1864 Times 19 Feb. 8/6 Mr. W. Ewart obtained leave to bring in a Bill to render permissive the use of the metric system of weights and measures in this country.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 226/1 It has already been stated that the preservative committee recommended its [sc. salicylic acid's] permissive use in small proportions.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 7 Oct. 939/2 In France..transplants from a living donor are illegal, while in certain American jurisdictions they are broadly permissive.
2003 Windsor (Ont.) Star (Nexis) 1 Nov. (Opinion) a11 One of the permissive uses identified in the document is an arena sports complex... It doesn't say that it absolutely has to be there, or it doesn't say it can't be there any more.
b. Of or designating a (usually long-established) footpath or bridleway which, though not an official right of way, is open to the public by permission of the landowner. With quot. 1921 cf. permissive crossing n. at Compounds.
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1921 Federal Reporter 270 759 It was not shown that there was a beaten pathway across the tracks suggestive of invitation or permissive way.
1952 Law Rep.: Chancery Div. 835 At the date of the grant there existed a permissive way to the land over the land of a stranger.
1982 Guardian Weekly 12 Sept. 22 There is a permissive footpath..along his back and Irish wicket, newly, in his fences.
2004 Trail May 107/2 Just before the dam, turn off onto the permissive footpath heading south along the lake.
2.
a. Having the quality of permitting or giving permission; that allows something to be done or to happen. Of a law, piece of legislation, etc.: facilitative rather than preventative.
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society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [adjective] > that permits
permissive1576
free and easy1594
concessive1619
facultative1822
permissory1849
tolerative1891
1576 B. Googe tr. ‘M. Palingenius’ Zodiake (new ed.) viii. 144 (margin) Gods will of two sort, Permissiue, and Mandatiue: to speak more sensibly. Will in sufferaunce, & Will in commaundement.
1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie i. viii. 66 The sentence of reason..is either mandatory..or els permissiue..or thirdly admonitorie.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) i. iii. 38 When euill deedes haue their permissiue passe. View more context for this quotation
1646 S. Bolton Arraignment of Errour 18 God would by this permissive providence of his, have us take heed as well what we heare, as how we heare.
1664 H. More Apol. vii. Aph. v. 537 This command is not a Positive but a Permissive command.
1716 J. Blanch Speculum Commercii 28 A Charter was granted to the Merchants of London, to trade to Zealand, Brabant and Flanders; which could be no more than a permissive Charter, having but lately obtain'd the Favour of packing up their Cloths.
1789 J. Bentham Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. Concl. 332 In the first instance, by discoercive or permissive laws, operating as exceptions to certain laws of the coercive or imperative kind.
1832 G. C. Lewis Remarks Use & Abuse Polit. Terms 36 Permissive legislation as in the case of legal rules established by courts of justice.
1864 Act 27 & 28 Victoria c. 117 An Act to render permissive the Use of the Metric System of Weights and Measures... This Act may be cited as the ‘Metric Weights and Measures Act, 1864’.
1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience xviii. 442 He..celebrates..the dependence of all that happens upon his [sc. God's] permissive will.
1934 Sun (Baltimore) 25 May 6/2 He asked..that the ‘permissive’ features of the pay-off provisions be made ‘directive’.. This would mean simply that the FDIC be ‘authorized and directed’ instead of ‘authorized and empowered’ to appraise the assets of the closed banks.
2003 News-Star (Monroe, Lousiana) (Nexis) 14 Sept. (Perspectives section) 1 b This is more of a permissive piece of legislation, poising the state to invest in the LCRF if and when the window of opportunity to sell the tobacco settlement arises.
b. Tolerant, liberal, allowing freedom, esp. in sexual matters.
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1946 Amer. Psychologist 1 416/2 The counselor creates a warm and permissive atmosphere in which the individual is free to bring out any attitudes and feelings which he may have.
1956 C. A. Tonsor in Clearing House XXX. v. 289 I realize that in the face of the permissive tendencies of the age, there is not much respect for rules.
1971 J. Wainwright Last Buccaneer ii. 106 He was nineteen years old and there are few nineteen-year-old male virgins in the permissive age.
1994 Sci. Amer. Nov. 63/3 Both authoritarian parenting (little warmth and high control) and permissive parenting (high warmth and little control) predict learning and adjustment problems.
3. Grammar. Of a verbal mood or agent: expressing permission or exhortation.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > mood > [adjective] > other spec.
conditional1530
subcontinuative1530
precatory1610
consuetudinal1728
conjunctive1736
precative1751
requisitive1751
adhortative1815
potential1837
jussive1846
obligative1877
hypothetical1892
permissive1892
1586 [implied in: W. Bullokar Pamphlet for Gram. 36 But, Let, vzed imparatiuly or permissiuly gouerning an accusatiu-cas..semeth too hau a nominatiu-cas of the second persn vnderstanded. (at permissively adv. 1)].
1702 A. J. Grammatica Anglo-Lusitanica 79 Permissive Mood. Present Tense. Ame eu, let me love.
1767 J. Gambold tr. D. Granz Hist. Greenland 222 The permissive mood, is also two-fold, the one demands a thing, the other begs permission.
1851 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 321 The potential mood may be optative, or conditional, or obligatory, or volitional, or necessitative, or permissive, &c.
1892 H. Sweet New Eng. Gram. I. 108 The combination of may and its preterite might with the infinitive (may see, might see) is called the permissive mood, as in may you be happy!
1976 J. S. Gruber Lexical Struct. Syntax & Semantics i. vi. 167 Let can be used as a fairly general Permissive Agent of Motion.
1997 P. H. Matthews Conc. Oxf. Dict. Linguistics 273 Let in They let us leave is in some accounts a ‘permissive’ causative, in opposition to make in They made us leave.
4. Physiology. Esp. of a hormone or its action: necessary but not sufficient for the production or occurrence of a particular physiological effect.
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1951 D. J. Ingle in Recent Progress Hormone Res. 6 180 There is a second relationship between hormone action and metabolic response, that of essentiality or..permissibility.]
1952 D. J. Ingle in Jrnl. Endocrinol. 8 p. xxxv These [adrenocortical] hormones..play a permissive rather than an aetiologic role in the manifestation of most forms of clinical diabetes.
1973 Nature 16 Nov. 160/1 Insulin alone does not initiate new cells into proliferation, but acts as a ‘permissive hormone’ supporting completion of the division cycles of those cells which were initiated in vivo.
1992 Jrnl. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therapeutics 261 951 In mature animals, thyroid hormone is permissive for beta adrenergic receptor expression.
2002 Hormone Res. 57 No. 2. (Suppl.) 2 The weight of evidence supports the hypothesis that leptin acts as one of several permissive factors and not a trigger in the onset of human puberty.
5. Virology and Biology. Originally: allowing the replication of viruses with a conditional lethal mutation. Later also (more generally): allowing the growth of organisms or cells, expression of a gene, synthesis of a protein, etc.
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1962 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 48 293 The bacterial strains that support growth of the am mutants, thus making their isolation and propagation possible, are called the ‘permissive’ hosts.
1964 Virology 23 152/2 Permissive hosts appear to contain suppressor genes that restore function in many different mutated cistrons.
1977 Ann. Internal Med. 86 329/1 The search for strain differences is severely hampered by the lack of cells permissive for virus replication.
1984 M. J. Taussig Processes in Pathol. & Microbiol. (ed. 2) iii. 240 The temperature sensitive (ts) type of mutant..is able to replicate and produce progeny virus at some low ‘permissive’ temperature, but not at a higher ‘restrictive’ one.
1988 Nature 15 Sept. 257/1 SCID mice, because of their immunodeficiency, are permissive for the growth of transformed human cell lines.
1997 Jrnl. Materials Sci. Materials in Med. 8 819 Results show that endothelialized HAP [= hydroxyapatite] is permissive to CD34+ cell expansion.
B. n.
1. Grammar. The permissive mood (see sense A. 3); a word, form, etc., in the permissive mood.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > mood > [noun] > other specific moods
conditional1591
potential1706
requisitive1751
conjunctive1795
consuetudinal1808
permissivea1831
obligative1877
jussive1900
a1831 J. Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) I. 52/2 Some writers have distinguished from the imperative, the precative, the deprecative, the permissive, the adhortative, [etc.].
1924 O. Jespersen Philos. Gram. xxiii. 320 As a tentative scheme of the..ideas expressed..by the verbal moods and auxiliaries of various languages we might perhaps give the following list... 1. Containing an element of will... Permissive: you may go if you like.
1962 J. L. Austin et al. How to do Things with Words xii. 158 In the special case of permissives we might ask whether they should be classified as exercitives or as commissives.
1988 Mind 97 624 His classification brings imperatives under three main heads: imperatives proper, permissives, and..para-imperatives.
2. Usually derogatory. A tolerant or permissive person; an advocate of permissive attitudes.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [noun] > one who permits > permissive person
permissivist1962
permissive1967
1967 Punch 15 Mar. 372/2 If, in the nineteenth century, sadists..belaboured little Johnny's bottom in order to knock Latin grammar into his head, some of today's jeans-and-gimmicks permissives may go too far the other way.
1982 Times 1 Feb. 2/1 This move is political sharp practice on the part of those permissives in the Home Office who have consistently resisted all attempts to tighten up the obscenity laws.
2002 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 30 May 5 He is a social conservative in a government of social permissives, a lay preacher surrounded by avowed atheists.
Compounds
permissive action link n. a mechanism in or attached to an (esp. nuclear) weapon, which prevents unauthorized arming or launching.
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1964 Times 17 Sept. 12/5 In addition, since 1961 we have placed permissive action links on several of our weapons.
1990 Sci. Amer. Dec. 22/3 Heading the list is the comprehensive use of so-called permissive action links (PALs). These electromechanical locks prevent warheads from detonating unless an essentially unbreakable code is inserted.
2002 N.Y. Mag. 26 May 28/1 Less sophisticated..weapons..have no permissive action links at all, so that setting one off would be about as complicated as hot-wiring a car.
permissive bill n. British (now historical) a bill introduced into Parliament several times between 1864 and 1877, intended to give each parish the right to refuse the issue of licences to sell intoxicating liquors.
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society > law > types of laws > [noun] > commercial or revenue
sizea1300
assizea1330
indiction1586
poll bill1641
frumentarian law1652
statute of the staple1657
statute of frauds1678
Gin Act1730
Pot Act1733
Stamp Act1765
Stamp-Bill1765
corn law1766
Bumboat Act1796
Maine law1852
permissive bill1864
lemon law1981
1864 J. R. Taylor (title) The Advantages of Temperance, discussed in a series of letters on the Sunday-closing of public-houses, Mr. Lawson's Permissive Bill, and Working-Men's Rights, etc.
1881 Princeton Rev. Jan.–June 103 In June, 1880, the Permissive Bill, for which the English prohibitionists have labored for thirty years, passed the House of Commons by a decisive majority.
1985 Hist. Jrnl. 28 631 Bright wanted to attack the Permissive Bill rather than work out an alternative scheme.
permissive crossing n. U.S. a place at which a pedestrian may cross a railway line.
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1884 Pennsylvania State Rep. 101 264 The cases of injuries to persons while crossing the track at permissive crossings are not analogous, and have no application.
1922 Atlantic Reporter 117 786/1 A child 8 years old, attempting to pass under the coupling between cars standing on a permissive crossing, is not a trespasser.
1999 Federal Reporter 3rd Ser. 168 680/1 The plaintiffs... They..invoke the permissive crossing doctrine and maintain that the causeway created an implied license for Zimmerman to enter and remain in the track area.
permissive society n. a form of society characterized by tolerance and liberal attitudes towards sexual behaviour, drug use, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > a civilization or culture > [noun] > other types of civilizations or cultures
economy1535
patriarchy1868
by-world1872
Western world1894
overworld1895
open society1911
pao-chia1931
closed society1935
plural society1939
technopolis1946
shame culture1947
19841951
Hollerith1957
metaculture1959
underground1959
permissive society1960
caring society1966
technocomplex1968
microsociety1970
overground1971
Manhattanism1978
society > authority > lack of subjection > permission > [noun] > one who permits > permissive person > permissive society
permissive society1960
1956 Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) 4 Dec. 16/1 With more and more young people having access to more and more autos in this increasingly permissive society of ours [etc.].]
1960 H. J. Morgenthau Purpose of Amer. Politics iia. iv. 64 The American consensus..creates of necessity a society that is pluralistic both in space and in time... The very dynamics of such a permissive society..carries within itself the propensity towards self-destruction.
1991 S. Cosgrove Hampden Babylon (BNC) 26 In a permissive society where officialdom and authority were being questioned at every turn, misbehaviour and impetuousness became a badge of courage and style.
permissive waste n. Law damage to a property that is allowed to happen through neglect of maintenance or repairs.
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the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [noun] > disrepair
dispayre1467
permissive waste1703
disrepair1798
irrepair1822
unrepair1843
1703 Tradesman's Lawyer & Countrey-man's Friend 212 There is a voluntary or actual waste and permissive Waste.
1854 Times 24 Mar. 11/2 He considered it to be the settled doctrine of that Court, that it had no power of interfering as to permissive waste.
1994 E. H. Burn Cheshire & Burn's Mod. Law Real Prop. (ed. 15) 398 A tenant at sufferance is liable for voluntary waste, but probably not for permissive waste.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1467