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authority

Pino76

Senior Member
FY for NotAllowingMeToDeleteMyAccount
"I will not have you running around the countryside without my authority."

Dear native speakers, I have just found the above example sentence in the Collins dictionary (for the phrasal verb run around), and I was wondering, does the word authority in this context mean permission? Are these two words interchangeable in some cases?
I have just discovered another example from Tripadvisor.ie: "All my reviews have been wiped without my authority."
This confirms my thinking that "without my authority" and "without my permission" mean (almost) the same thing..
Thanks for reading 👁 Smile :)
Yes it does, and they can be interchangeable, although it is unlikely the speaker would use "permission" here, as it is less formal in tone and does not fit well with "I will not have you" (as opposed to "don't").

It might be worth noting that "authority" usually requires the giver of that authority to be identified, as it is here ("my authority"), whereas "permission" does not, although you will sometimes see "authority" used where there isn't an obvious giver of that authority.

Edit: In your second example, "permission" would be fine.
Yes it does, and they can be interchangeable, although it is unlikely the speaker would use "permission" here, as it is less formal in tone and does not fit well with "I will not have you" (as opposed to "don't").

It might be worth noting that "authority" usually requires the giver of that authority to be identified, as it is here ("my authority"), whereas "permission" does not, although you will sometimes see "authority" used where there isn't an obvious giver of that authority.

Edit: In your second example, "permission" would be fine.
That clears things up for me. Thank you Jack for your useful post.
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