Make Your Editor Cry: Allowed vs. Aloud
Allowed is the past tense of the verb allow, meaning to permit, to let happen, to permit entrance, or to acknowledge the truth or acceptability of something. Related words are allows, allowing, allowedly. Allow comes into the English language in the fourteenth century as allouen, from the the Latin word allaudare meaning to praise and the medieval Latin word allocare which means to place.
Aloud means not silently, spoken out loud. Aloud may be used as an adverb or as an adjective. Aloud comes to us in the late fourteenth century by adding the prefix a- to the word loud.
Examples:
I didn't find the problem with my manuscript until I read it aloud.
I allowed myself to revise the "final" draft one more time.
Gregg Bridgeman is the Editor-in-Chief at Olivia Kimbrell Press. He is husband to best-selling Christian author Hallee Bridgeman and parent to three. He continues to proudly serve in the US Armed Forces and has done so in either an active or reserve capacity for more than twenty years as an airborne and air assault qualified paratrooper, earning a Bronze Star for his service. Most importantly, he was ordained in October of 2001 after surrendering his life to Christ decades earlier.
