say-so

• sayso

From say +‎ so.

say-so (plural say-sos)

1. (informal) Authority, as backing some statement, injunction, or command.

   I wouldn't buy anything that expensive just on the say-so of a saleman.

   You are not to go into that room without my say-so.

   • 1973, New Scientist, volume 58, number 852, page 822:

     At the moment, and in "an emergency", you or I could be sent to the bin, willy-nilly, on the say-so of a single doctor (who may never have seen us before, and need have no particular experience of mental illness), so long as the application is supported by one of our relatives, or by a "social worker".

   • 1988, Boris Aldanov, The human predicament, volume 1, page 134:

     the answer is that we just 'think' ourselves to Be Goodness Itself, we confer that Goodness upon ourselves by say-so, […]

   • 2007, Francesca Aran Murphy, God Is Not a Story: Realism Revisited‎^[1]:

     We could only know the authors are eye witnesses by taking it on their say-so, that is, by believing them, or by believing a string of say-sos.

   • 1999, Jack C. Doppelt, Ellen Shearer, Nonvoters: America's no-shows, page 162:

     "I guess I have gotten fed up with the government. You're only helped if you're on the good side. If you're on the bad side, then you can't have help, you've got no say-so, and you've got no rights, […] "

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎^[2], page 2:

     Urban Dictionary records at least 66 of the terms found by the present research, but as this dictionary liberally accepts words, definitions, and sample sentences based solely on the say-so of contributors, in the absence of corroboration from other sources the authenticity of some entries must remain dubious.

• see Citations:sayso

• leave
• permission

• blessing
• clearance
• go-ahead
• imprimatur
• placet
• sanction
• warrant
• what someone says goes

• Soays