prevalence

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French prévalence (“superiority, excellence”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in 1504,^[2] and in part from its Latin source, Latin praevalentia (“superior force”);^[2] Merriam-Webster, the Shorter Oxford and Klein call the Latin word Late Latin, Etymonline Medieval Latin, and the OED finds it in a legal text of the 2nd century AD.^{[6][4][5][3][2]} It is formed from praevalēns, the present participle of praevaleō (“to be more able, prevail”),^[2][3][6] from prae- (“before”) and valeō (“to be strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *wal- (“to be strong”).^[3] The OED compares Italian prevalenza and the English prevail and prevalent.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fact of prevailing; mastery or predominance: 1604, in T. Bilson's Survey of Christ's Sufferings;^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

English already had several nouns for prevailing, among them prevailance and Shakespeare's prevailment, and prevalence first meant the same: winning out over others.^[2][3] From 1612 to 1879 it also meant effective force or power, influence or efficacy.^[2][4] The modern sense, the condition of being widespread or common, is recorded from 1682;^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to 1713.^[3] In medicine it came to mean the number or proportion of people who have a disease at a given time.^[4][6] The older senses are now rare.^[2][4] The variant prevalency is recorded from the early 17th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1590s – mastery, according to Etymonline.^[3]
• 1604 – the fact of prevailing; predominance.^[2]
• 1612 – effective force, efficacy (obsolete by 1879).^[2]
• 1646 – greater power or strength (rare).^[2]
• 1682 – the condition of being widespread or common.^[2][6]
• 1713 – widespread occurrence, according to Etymonline.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fact or condition of being widespread or common: the prevalence of mobile phones.^[6][2][4]
2. In medicine and epidemiology, the proportion of a population that has a particular disease at a given time.^[6][4]
3. (rare) The fact of prevailing; mastery.^[2][4]
4. (obsolete, 1612–1879) Effective force or influence; efficacy.^[2][4]

Word family

• nonprevalence
• seroprevalence

Related words

• prevail
• prevalent
• valid
• value

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster