prevent

Pronunciation

• IPA: /prɪˈvent/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English preventen,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin praeventus,^[2][4] past participle of praevenīre (“to come before, anticipate, hinder”),^[2][4][5] from prae- (“before”) and venīre (“to come”),^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *gʷa- (“to go, come”).^[2] It is related to come.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To act in anticipation of: probably before 1425, in a translation of Higden's Polychronicon,^[4] the early 15th century in Etymonline,^[2] and 1432–50 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

At first the word kept the literal Latin sense of coming or acting before: to act sooner than another person, to precede or outrun (1523),^[6] and to anticipate a question or wish, before 1533.^[6] One could once “prevent” someone's wishes by anticipating them.^[7] In theology God “prevented” a person by going before with grace and guidance, from 1531.^[6][8] Acting in advance to thwart a plan led to the idea of stopping something from happening.^[7] The sense “to keep from happening” is in Elyot's Dictionary (1548),^[4] by the 1540s in Etymonline,^[2] and “to hinder”, though it existed in Latin, is not recorded in English until 1663.^[4][2] Prevention is better than cure dates from the 17th century.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – to act in anticipation of.^[4]
• 1523 – to act before another; to precede.^[6]
• 1531 – of God, to go before with grace.^[6]
• 1548 – to keep from happening.^[4]
• 1663 – to hinder.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To keep from happening; to avert.
2. To stop someone from doing something; to hinder.
3. (archaic) To come or act before; to anticipate.
4. (archaic) Of God, to go before a person with spiritual guidance.

Word family

• preventability
• preventer
• preventable
• preventingly
• unprevented
• preventative
• prevention

Related words

• preventive
• come
• advent
• convene
• event

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press