Authorisation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The granting of official permission or approval that allows a specific action to be taken
2. The act of giving formal consent for something to be done
3. A formal decision enabling an action or process to proceed

Etymology: Authorisation is built from "authorise" plus the suffix "-ation," and the verb itself is the more interesting half. Its ancestor is the Latin "auctor," meaning originator, creator, or one who brings something into being, a sense tied to the verb "augeō," "to increase or make grow." So the idea of permission began with the notion of someone whose authority lets a thing come into existence. The verb arrived in English through a chain of borrowings. Latin "auctōrizāre" passed into Old French as "auctorisier," then into Middle English as "auctorisen," before the modern "authorize" took shape in English. The Latin "-ātiō" suffix, which turns a verb into a noun of action, came along with it through Old French "-ation" and Middle English "-aciou(n)," giving us the process noun "authorization" with the same ending found in words like "creation" and "relation."

Synonyms: approval, permission, consent, sanction, validation

Antonyms: prohibition, denial, refusal, forbiddance, disapproval