Access vs Authority - What's the difference?
access | authority |
(uncountable) A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage.
* All access was thronged. - Milton
(uncountable) The act of approaching or entering; an advance.
(uncountable) The right or ability of approaching or entering; admittance; admission; accessibility.
(uncountable) The quality of being easy to approach or enter.
* c. 1600 , (William Shakespeare), Act 2 Scene 1
* {{quote-news, year=2011
, date=September 20
, author=Graeme Paton
, title=University access plan 'will fail', says Russell Group
, work=Telegraph
(uncountable) Admission to sexual intercourse.
* 1760s , (William Blackstone),
(countable) An increase by addition; accession; as, an access of territory.
* I, from the influence of thy looks, receive access in every virtue. - Milton
(countable) An onset, attack, or fit of disease; an ague fit.
* The first access looked like an apoplexy. - Burnet
(countable) An outburst of an emotion; a paroxysm; a fit of passion; as, an access of fury.
* 1946 , Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (Abridgement of Volumes I-VI by D.C. Somervell)
(uncountable, legal) The right of a non-custodial parent to visit their child.
(uncountable, computing) The process of locating data in memory.
(uncountable, Internet) Connection to or communication with a computer program or to the Internet.
To gain or obtain access to.
(computing) To have access to (data).
(label) The power to enforce rules or give orders.
* 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)
(label) Persons in command; specifically, government.
*{{quote-book, year=1927, author=
, chapter=4, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) A person accepted as a source of reliable information on a subject.
* 1930 September 18, Albert Einstein, as quoted in Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel (1988) by Banesh Hoffman
As nouns the difference between access and authority
is that access is (uncountable) a way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage while authority is (label) the power to enforce rules or give orders.As a verb access
is to gain or obtain access to.access
English
Etymology 1
* First attested in the early 14th century. * (entrance) First attested about 1380. * From (etyl), from (etyl) .Noun
- I did repel his fetters, and denied His access to me. - Shakespeare, Hamlet, II-i
citation, page= , passage=Coalition plans to widen access to university will fail to get to the 'root cause' of the problem, according to the Russell Group.}}
- During coverture, access of the husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary be shown.
- It appears that, about the middle of the fourth century of the Christian Era, the Germans in the Roman service started the new practice of retaining their native names; and this change of etiquette, which seems to have been abrupt, points to a sudden access of self-confidence and self-assurance in the souls of the barbarian personnel which had previously been content to 'go Roman' without reservations.
- Usage note: sometimes confused with excess
Derived terms
* direct access * random access * remote accessEtymology 2
* First attested in 1962.Verb
(es)- I can't access most of the data on the computer without a password.
References
* * *Statistics
*authority
English
Alternative forms
* authourity (obsolete)Noun
- But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.
F. E. Penny
Pulling the Strings, passage=The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities . A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.}}
Legal highs: A new prescription, passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
- To punish me for my contempt of authority', Fate has made me an ' authority myself.