Etymologically
Log in

prevent

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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

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