To Prevent

To Prevent.
It has two meanings, depending on the time period of usage: to make something happen; to keep something from happening. An ironic semantic drift.
To Rule is to Prevent.

—Rich Coffeen, the Discipling of Mytra, p. 417.
Posted by Tim at 7/26/2010 09:57:00 PM

3 comments:

  1. Unknown7/29/2010 06:39:00 AM

    Tim,
    Good to see some more recent posts on the shephanim. But I don't get this one. I've never heard 'prevent' used as making something happen. Dictionary.com gives a couple archaic forms that are a bit different (to act ahead of; forestall), but words change meaning over time.
    Just a thought.

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  2. Tim1/04/2012 09:04:00 PM

    "We have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us."

    —Articles of the Church of England X, 1563.

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  3. Tim9/24/2012 09:03:00 PM

    For me, in the ancient and partly in the modern sense, God answered the prayer, "Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings."

    —G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.

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