English
consent
Consent comes, via Middle English, from Old French consentir, from Latin cōnsentiō ‘to agree’ (com- + sentiō ‘to feel’), ultimately from PIE *sent-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sent-1‘to feel’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sentiō1‘to feel’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsentiō2‘to feel’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnsentiō2‘to agree; to assent, consent’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400consentir2‘to consent’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595consent2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin sentio, which cites LIV
- 2 Wiktionary, English consent
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “My poverty, but not my will, consents.”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sent-Wiktionary, Latin sentio, which cites LIV‘to feel’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sentiōWiktionary, Latin sentio, which cites LIV‘to feel’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsentiōWiktionary, English consent‘to feel’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcōnsentiōWiktionary, English consent‘to agree; to assent, consent’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400consentirWiktionary, English consent‘to consent’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1591–1595consentWiktionary, English consent. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet: “My poverty, but not my will, consents.”
The story
Recorded in Middle English since circa 1225, borrowed from Old French consentir, from Latin cōnsentīre (‘to agree; to assent, consent’), itself from com- (‘with’) + sentiō (‘to feel’) (whence con-).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with consent, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *sent- ‘to feel’
through Proto-Italic *sentiō ‘to feel, to sense, to perceive’
- senseless ← sense ← sense ← sens ← *sennus
- insensible ← īnsēnsibilis ← sēnsibilis ← sentiō
- antisense ← sense ← sense ← sens ← *sennus
through Latin sentiō ‘to feel’
100 more relatives in the full family tree
No ads, ever.
Explore everything descended from *sent- →
No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.
Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app
Today it means
verb To express willingness, to give permission.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “consent”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin sentio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sent- / consent