“what do you allow?†when asking for your opinion.
I've read "allow" or " 'low" to mean "opine" in old novels, but never heard it myself. I'm pretty sure I've run across it in Clemens—didn't Aunt Polly use it?—and maybe in Steinbeck too. Not just your family, then, and if I'm not mistaken Tom Sawyer was from parts further west, Alabama maybe (I forget).
Bob Bridges said:
I've read "allow" or " 'low" to mean "opine" in old novels, but never heard it myself. I'm pretty sure I've run across it in Clemens—didn't Aunt Polly use it?—and maybe in Steinbeck too. Not just your family, then, and if I'm not mistaken Tom Sawyer was from parts further west, Alabama maybe (I forget).
North Missouri on the Mississippi River.
Being a foreigner not sensitive to regional usages, hearing "allow" I hear "grant only this much so to stay prudent and conservative."
"Opine" seems too strong to be synonym of "allow", and it does not go with "I"-- You hear "I allow that..." but seldom or never "I opine that..."
RobertB said:
"Opine" seems too strong to be synonym of "allow", and it does not go with "I"-- You hear "I allow that..." but seldom or never "I opine that..."
I think that I, too, seldom or never hear "I opine that..." but I think that is only because the word "opine" is antiquated. But it is a verb that comes after a subject so, "I opine", "you opine", "he/she opines" is really the most logical use of the word. And, knowing the meaning of "opine", it is a perfect synonym for what my understanding is of "allow." I have heard this phrase many times in my youth by people who are no longer with us, so I haven't heard it in years now, but it always made me feel that the speaker was giving his opinion when he used it.