Sufferaunce

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Calm endurance of hardship or annoyance ; consent or authorization given to someone to do something
2. The capacity to bear or tolerate something difficult ; a warrant or license permitting an action
3. Patient acceptance of pain or difficulty ; official consent or authority granted for a particular purpose

Etymology: "Sufferaunce" is an older spelling of "sufferance," and the surprise lies in the meaning. For centuries it meant enduring pain or hardship, the sense that now lives on in "suffering." The shift to "tacit permission" came later, and it is that sense that now dominates, as in "on sufferance," meaning allowed only because no one objects. The word descends from Old French "soufrance," formed from "souffrir" ("to suffer"). That verb came from Latin "sufferre," built from "sub-" ("under") and "ferre" ("to bear"), so the root idea is bearing something up or enduring it. English adopted the noun in the Middle Ages, and the spelling "sufferaunce" appears in texts of that period before spelling settled into "sufferance." The exact date of the sense change is less certain, but the endurance meaning is clearly older, and the permission sense developed from the notion of putting up with something rather than forbidding it.