consent is voluntary approval of, or agreement to, what another person does or proposes — permission given freely by someone with the understanding and standing to give it.
As a verb it means to give assent or approval; as a noun, the compliance or agreement itself. The word came into English through Anglo-French from Latin consentire, joining com- (with) and sentire (to feel), so its root sense is feeling together rather than mere permission. It sits among close neighbors that differ in how willing the agreement is: assent is intellectual acceptance of a proposition, accede is yielding to a request or demand, and acquiesce is going along without real objection or enthusiasm. Consent carries the strongest sense of active, voluntary choice.
In sexual ethics, medicine, and relationships the word has become a term of practice. Affirmative-consent standards and the 📝FRIES model — freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic, specific — treat it as ongoing and revocable rather than a single signature, and 📝Consensual Non-Monogamy (CNM) takes its name from the word. Law adds a further condition: consent requires capacity, so it cannot be given by someone who is incapacitated or coerced.
"No one can play who is forced to 📝play. It is an invariable principle of all play, finite and infinite, that whoever plays, plays freely. Whoever must play, cannot play." ~ 📝James Carse
"You don't just shove food in someone's mouth when you're out to dinner with them, you let them use their voice and have a choice." ~ 📝Jennifer Gunsaullus (source)
"May consent be remembered as something we tend, not something we obtain. [...] You don’t “have” consent. You stay in relationship with it." ~ 📝Tzen Lai, 📝Consent is a Practice, Not Permission