Word of the Day

: March 22, 2019

purview

noun PER-vyoo

What It Means

1 a : the body or enacting part of a statute

b : the limit, purpose, or scope of a statute

2 : the range or limit of authority, competence, responsibility, concern, or intention

3 : range of vision, understanding, or cognizance

purview in Context

"The Supreme Court had ruled that the House has purview over ordering a new election…." — Dan Haar, The New Haven (Connecticut) Register, 13 Feb. 2019

"In getting the role of president of NBC Entertainment's Alternative and Reality Group, [Meredith] Ahr now commands one of the biggest unscripted portfolios in television. Adding the network to her purview means that she also will be the executive overseeing TV's two biggest reality properties, America's Got Talent and The Voice." — Michael O'Connell, Hollywoodreporter.com, 19 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?

You might guess that there is a connection between purview and view. Purview comes from purveu, a word often found in the legal statutes of 13th- and 14th-century England. These statutes, written in Anglo-French, opened with the phrases purveu est and purveu que, which translate literally to "it is provided" and "provided that." Purveu derives from porveu, the past participle of the Old French verb porveeir, meaning "to provide." View derives (via Middle English) from the past participle of another Anglo-French word, veer, meaning "to see," and ultimately from Latin vidēre, of the same meaning.