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Your objection interests me, because these are both cases that I figured out myself with much contemplation and was quite content with many years ago and have n

Your objection interests me, because these are both cases that I figured out myself with much contemplation and was quite content with many years ago and have never subsequently looked up in any reference (and I doubt your alternatives ever occurred to me). But after a spot of investigation now, I don’t believe you’re right on either count and stick to what I have written, at least for now. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=let+tennis+hinder https://duckduckgo.com/?q=let+tennis+hinder: the consensus among the first few results, which are reputable-looking sources, seems to be that the hinder sense is probably correct, though some suggest as an alternative the French filet meaning net. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=etymology+of+let+and+hindrance https://duckduckgo.com/?q=etymology+of+let+and+hindrance: not much obviously canonical, but https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/without-let-or-hindrance.html https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/without-let-or-hindrance... at least sounds reasonable, and agrees with me, including a citation in the last paragraph from 1799 which is unequivocally being used in the sense I nominated.

waqf 5y ago
We can do better than "at least sounds reasonable". Wiktionary is a detailed source for etymology (albeit not itself sourced): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let#Etymology_2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let#Etymology_2
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  In my response I was addressing the specific phrase “let or hindrance”; that let has historically been auto-antonymic is incontrovertible and well-documented and (whether rightly or wrongly) I was interpreting samatman’s comment as referring to the two specific contexts where I say it is still exhibits its historical auto-antonymicity.
  - samatman 5y ago
    I was. I'm still convinced that the folky etymology we've found online for tennis is wrong, because "serve, let, fault" are all about the server. But that's hardly relevant.

waqf 5y ago

We can do better than "at least sounds reasonable". Wiktionary is a detailed source for etymology (albeit not itself sourced): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let#Etymology_2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/let#Etymology_2

chrismorgan 5y ago
In my response I was addressing the specific phrase “let or hindrance”; that let has historically been auto-antonymic is incontrovertible and well-documented and (whether rightly or wrongly) I was interpreting samatman’s comment as referring to the two specific contexts where I say it is still exhibits its historical auto-antonymicity.
- samatman 5y ago
  I was. I'm still convinced that the folky etymology we've found online for tennis is wrong, because "serve, let, fault" are all about the server. But that's hardly relevant.