Origin and history of -let

1590s, "to assign quarters to, to direct (a soldier) by note to a lodging place," from a noun meaning "a ticket given by a military officer directing a person to whom it is addressed to provide board and lodging for the soldier carrying it" (1640s). This was a specific use of the

1765, "authenticated official report concerning some event, issued for the information of the public," from French bulletin (16c.), modeled on Italian bulletino, diminutive of bulletta "document, voting slip," itself a diminutive of Latin bulla "round object" (see bull (n.2)) wit

1787 as a term in botany; 1867 as a term in printing and publication; diminutive of leaf (n.) with -let. A newspaperman asked the British authorities for a copy of the leaflets distributed in Germany by British airplanes. According to the London Daily Herald, his request was ref

transitive, "allow (something) to be done, suffer or allow to be," from Old French permetre and directly from Latin permittere "let...pass, let go, let loose; give up, hand over; let, allow, grant, permit," from per "through" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward...," hence "through") + mittere "let go, send" (see mission)....

late 14c., admitten, "let in," from Latin admittere "admit, give entrance, allow to enter; grant an audience," of acts, "...let be done, allow, permit," from ad "to" (see ad-) + mittere "let go, send" (see mission)....

late 15c., "to take a lease," from Anglo-French lesser (13c.), Old French laissier "to let, let go, let out, leave" "to let...

(nominative omissio) "an omitting," noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin omittere "disregard," literally "let...go, let fall" (see omit)....

1510s, "a composition presenting in dialogue a course of human action, the description of a story converted into the action of a play," from Late Latin drama "play, drama," from Greek drama (genitive dramatos) "action, deed; play, spectacle," from drāo "to do, make, act, perform"

late 14c., "ability, opportunity, means, resources," from Old French faculte "skill, accomplishment, learning" (14c., Modern French faculté) and directly from Latin facultatem (nominative facultas) "power, ability, capability, opportunity; sufficient number, abundance, wealth," f

1540s, "time of merrymaking before Lent," from French carnaval, from Italian carnevale "Shrove Tuesday," from older Italian forms such as Milanese *carnelevale, Old Pisan carnelevare "to remove meat," literally "raising flesh," from Latin caro "flesh" (originally "a piece of fles