Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday October 2, 2007
supervene \soo-pur-VEEN\ , intransitive verb:
1. To take place or occur as something additional, extraneous, or unexpected (sometimes followed by 'on' or 'upon').
2. To follow immediately after; to ensue.
After all, doctors outside the hospital can pick up the pieces and readmission is always possible, provided death doesn't supervene.
-- Theodore Dalrymple, "How to win a million pounds", New Statesman, April 7, 2003
Sympathy will weaken; the anger of American public opinion will be uncontainable; doubt -- and the usual conflict of differing interests -- will supervene.
-- "The terrible swift sword", Daily Telegraph, September 13, 2001
We must recognize that it is often unwise to change procedures long in place, lest unintended adverse consequences supervene.
-- William Anderson, "It Is Ended", Weekly Standard, March 31, 2005
Perhaps it was inevitable that, after the magical extravaganza of the Eighties, a day-after-the-feast mood should supervene.
-- Robert McCrum, "The Booker", The Observer, September 26, 1999
Supervene comes from Latin supervenire, from super-, "over, above" + venire, "to come."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for supervene
