Word of the Day

: July 26, 2008

prevenient

adjective prih-VEEN-yunt

What It Means

: antecedent, anticipatory

prevenient in Context

"What aroused my hackles when I saw the . . . reports on the Academy's findings was the prevenient sense that here . . . was another propaganda statement." (R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., The Washington Times, July 7, 2000)

Did You Know?

It would be quite convenient to know where the word "prevenient" comes from. Can you find two relatives of "prevenient" in that sentence? You probably guessed that "convenient" is a cousin -- and you're right; it derives from the Latin verb "convenire," meaning "to come together" or "to be suitable," which is itself from "venire," meaning "to come." "Prevenient," which first appeared in English in the mid-1600s, comes to us from the Latin "praevenire" ("to come before" or "to anticipate"), which is also from "venire." The other (albeit distant) relative of "prevenient" in the opening sentence is "come"; it shares an ancient ancestor with "venire."