preventivo

Forms

preventivo (feminine preventiva, masculine plural preventivos, feminine plural preventivas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned formation on from Latin praeventus (“anticipated, forestalled”), the past participle of praeveniō (“to come before, anticipate”), with the Spanish suffix -ivo.^[2][1] The Latin verb is formed from prae- (“before”) and veniō (“to come”).^[3][1] The Academy's dictionaries from 1884 to 2001 derived the word instead from the supine of the Latin verb.^[4][5]

Corominas lists the adjective with prevención and desprevenido among the derivatives of prevenir, first recorded in 1444.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) records the adjective as a legal term: it described the jurisdiction of a judge who shared it with another and took up a case before him.^[8] It gives Latin praeventivus as the equivalent.^[8][9] The first record from the Americas is from Bogotá in 1751, su preventiva oposición, “his pre-emptive opposition”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Terreros still calls it a voz forense, a word of the law courts.^[11] The Academy kept the legal definition through the 19th century, beside the general sense “that prevents something”.^[12][4][13] Domínguez in 1846–1847 adds a military use, the voz preventiva or cautionary word of command that comes before the order of execution.^[14] In legal language the embargo preventivo was a seizure of a suspect's property to secure the outcome of a trial.^[15]

Today the general sense prevails, above all in medicine and public safety: medicina preventiva, prisión preventiva and guerra preventiva are fixed phrases.^[2][16][17] The DTME defines it as relating to prevention, or able to prevent one or more diseases, and notes the old synonym preservativo.^[18]

Timeline

• 1737 – first record, in the Diccionario de Autoridades, as a legal term.^[8]
• 1751 – first record in the Americas, in Bogotá.^[10]
• 1788 – Terreros calls it a voz forense.^[11]
• 1846–1847 – Domínguez records the military voz preventiva.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives an etymology, from the Latin supine praeventum.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. preventive, pre-emptive: that prevents or serves to prevent a harm or danger: Cerraron el puente como medida preventiva.^[2][17][1]
2. (medicine) Relating to prevención, or able to prevent a disease.^[18][16]

Related words

• prevenir
• prevención
• venir

Usage notes

Common set phrases are prisión preventiva “custody pending trial”, anotación preventiva (a provisional entry in a property register) and guerra preventiva “pre-emptive war”.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. preventivo
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 863
5. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. preventivo
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venir
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 374
9. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. preventivo
10. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. preventivo
11. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 209
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 702
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 810
14. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1421
15. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 944
16. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
17. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
18. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. preventivo