If you give me permission, that is different from me giving my word, non?
I love these little hidden gems in language - especially the ones where I have had all the tools to figure it out myself but somehow have been too obtuse to connect the dots (see December, Quarantine, Turkey).
Lately, thanks to a rec from my bro, I've been reading my way through the Horatio Hornblower series. Early on, the protagonist is taken prisoner and when he asks to be released temporarily, the warden asks him for his "parole". The French word for "word" - which I have known all my life but never associated with our English word "parole" which is something we grant prisoners or the accused these days.
Hmmm.... methinks this might make an interesting blog post someday: We used to give our word now we are granted it. Someday I'll have some profound insight on this and write about it, for now you'll just have to take my word for it...
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