preveni

Forms

preveni (third-person singular present previne, past participle prevenit), 4th conjugation^[1] A rare first person present previu is recorded beside previn.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French prévenir, with Latin praeveniō (“to come before, anticipate”) as a second source, as the dictionaries give it.^{[2][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin takes it from the New Latin verb, possibly through another language.^[7] The French verb was borrowed in 1467 from the Latin, which is formed prae- (“before”) and veniō (“to come”), literally “to come before”.^[8][9] In Romanian it matches pre- and veni.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1785, with the senses “to warn” and “to forestall”.^[7] MDA2 quotes it first from Bobb's Romanian–Latin–Hungarian dictionary of 1822.^[2] Negulici's dictionary (1848) defines it as doing first what another wants to do, warding off an evil, and informing someone in advance.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Of the senses Negulici and Pontbriant give, “to go ahead, anticipate” has faded, and the verb now means above all “to warn” and “to take measures against, to forestall”.^[10][11][4] The sense “to fulfil someone's wishes before they are expressed” survives as rare.^[4][2] Șăineanu's dictionary also recorded “to dispose favourably”, as in French.^[12]

Timeline

• 1785 – first record, “to warn; to forestall”.^[7]
• 1822 – in Bobb's dictionary, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1848 – defined in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it “prévenir, devancer, anticiper; avertir, informer”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To warn: to draw someone's attention to the unpleasant consequences of an action; to inform in advance.^[4][2][1]
2. (transitive) To prevent: to take timely measures to avoid something unpleasant.^[4][2][1]
3. (transitive, rare) To fulfil someone's wishes before they are expressed; to anticipate.^[4][2]

Related words

• prevenție
• prevenire
• veni
• French prévenir

Usage notes

A separate regional verb preveni “to come again”, formed in Romanian from pre- and veni, is recorded in Oltenia, near Băile Herculane.^[6][2][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 530
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 560
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 872
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. preveni
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. preveni
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc
13. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual