Why is the same modal auxiliary, 'may/might' used to ask permission and for uncertainty?



"May I go to the bathroom?" and "I asked if I might go to the bathroom."



The modal auxiliary 'may/might' is used to ask permission.



"He may not have understood your question." and "He might not have understood your question."



The same modal auxiliary is used for uncertainty.


Why?



Answer



According to OED 1, the oldest meaning (attested from the early 9th century) was “to be strong, have power or influence”—a sense still present in the noun might and the adjective mighty.


No later than the end of the 9th century the word was in use to express “objective possibility, opportunity, or absence of prohibitive conditions”.


The permissive sense developed somewhat later, around the year 1000: “To be allowed (to do something) by authority, rule, law, morality, reason, etc.”. This is a fairly obvious extension of the primary sense: to permit someone to do something is to grant them the “power” to do it.


What you describe as the “uncertainty” is attested by 1200. Again, it's a logical step: to say you are able to do something is different from saying you will do it, so may cedes ‘ability’ to can and assumes the sense of “Expressing subjective possibility, i.e. the admissibility of a supposition”.


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