Allow meaning 'provide the ability to'

[Geoff Nathan]

I'm having a small debate with a local prescriptivist over something I'm
writing to advertise an upcoming conference on e-Portfolios.  I had written:

> E-Portfolios are a relatively new electronic tool allowing students to
> >assemble an online summary of their academic careers (papers, films,
> >performances, poems, foreign language abilities).
and was told 'allow' means 'permit'.  My usage struck me as totally
unremarkable, so I went to the OED, Dictionary.com and MerriamWebster
Online, and found, to my astonishment, that none agreed with me,
providing no senses like the one I used here.  Am I missing something?
Have I run across a new shibboleth?  Or new to me?
I can easily construct a plausible story for the semantics of the
extension, but I'm surprised it hasn't made it to dictionaries.  Or is
this slightly metaphorical use so common as not to need explication?

--
Geoffrey S. Nathan
Department of English/Computing and Information Technology
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI, 48202
<geoffnathan at wayne.edu>
Phones:  C&IT (313) 577-1259/English (313) 577-8621

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