Prohibiting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To officially declare that certain actions cannot be performed and enforce this status
2. To formally stop or disallow an action or behavior through rules or laws
3. To prevent or forbid a particular act, making it not allowed or unlawful

Etymology: "Prohibiting" is the present participle of "prohibit," and its history runs back to a Latin verb whose literal sense was "to hold off" or "to fend off." Latin "prohibēre" combined "prae" or "pro" meaning "before" or "forward" with "habēre," "to hold," so the original image is of holding something back from reaching you. The Latin participle "prohibitus" carried that sense into Middle English as "prohibiten." The modern sense of formal barring by law or rule grew out of that physical idea of keeping something at bay. The word therefore began as a matter of physically keeping things away and only later came to describe an authority forbidding an action. Latin "habēre" also sits behind a whole family of English words such as "exhibit" and "inhibit," which share the same core of holding.

Synonyms: forbidding, banning, restricting, disallowing, preventing

Antonyms: allowing, permitting, enabling, authorizing