proviso

proviso¹ condition, stipulation

Etymology

The stipulation is borrowed from Medieval Latin prōvīsō (“it being provided”),^[2][3][4] from the phrase prōvīsō quod (“it being provided that”), with which clauses in medieval legal documents often began,^[5][3][6] and which is frequent in British sources from about 1266 to 1549.^[2] The phrase is a specific use of Latin prōvīsō, the ablative neuter singular of prōvīsus, past participle of prōvideō (“to foresee, provide”),^[2][6][7] the source of provide.^[3][8] The OED and Weekley compare purview.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a conjunction, "provided that", opening a condition: 1434, in the records of the Privy Council, Proviso: þat yf for lak of artillerie.^[4][2] As a noun, a clause stating a condition: 1443, in the same records, with a proviso þat þei shippe non oþer wolles.^[4][2] Etymonline dates the noun to the mid-15th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

English first took over the Latin opening word of a clause, using it to introduce a condition, a use that lasted until 1794.^[2] From the 1440s it also named the clause itself,^[2][4] especially a special exception to the general terms of an act of Parliament.^[4][6] The sense then widened from documents to any condition or reservation.^[5][10] Johnson (1755) glossed it as stipulation or provisional condition, quoting Spenser, South and Shakespeare's Henry IV.^[11] From 1676 it was also a term of English law, a trial continued at the defendant's request; the OED now calls this historical and rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1434 – conjunction, provided that (obsolete after 1794).^[2][12]
• 1443 – noun, a clause in a legal or formal document that states a condition.^[2][4]
• 1676 – in law, a trial continued at the defendant's request.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clause in a statute, contract or other document that introduces a condition, limitation or exception, usually beginning with provided that: The lease contains a proviso on subletting.^{[5][10][13][2]}
2. A condition or stipulation in general: She agreed to come, with the proviso that she could leave early.^[5][10][14]

Word family

• provisory

proviso² mooring hawser

Etymology

The hawser is apparently borrowed from Italian provese, a regional word of Venice recorded before 1487, with its ending altered after Italian masculine nouns in -o.^[2] The Italian word probably goes back to Late Latin prosnesium (“mooring rope, painter”), found before 636 in Isidore, and ultimately to Ancient Greek πρυμνήσιον (prumnḗsion, “stern-rope”), from πρυμνήσιος (prumnḗsios, “relating to the stern”), from πρύμνα (prúmna, “stern”); the Latin spelling apparently shows the influence of Greek words beginning with πρός (prós, “to, towards”).^[2] The OED compares prodese, recorded before 1347.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hawser run to the shore to steady a moored ship: 1625, in Mainwaring's Nomenclator Navalis.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was chiefly used in the phrase to moor a proviso,^[2] and Smyth's Sailor's Word-Book of 1867 still defines it as a stern-fast or hawser taken ashore, with a ship on one anchor and a shore-fast said to be moored a proviso.^[15] The OED's record ends in that year.^[2]

Timeline

• 1625 – a hawser attached to the shore to steady a moored vessel.^[2][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1625–1867) A hawser carried from a ship to the shore to hold it steady at its mooring.^[2][15]