preponderantadj.
/prᵻˈpɒnd(ə)rənt/, /prᵻˈpɒnd(ə)rn̩t/, U.S. /prəˈpɑnd(ə)rənt/ 1. Greater or superior in influence, power, or importance; predominant.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > predominance or preponderance > [adjective]
preponderanta1500
predominant1575
predominate1591
ascendant1634
prepollent1657
preponderate1789
predominated1800
a1500 (a1450) tr. Secreta Secret. (Ashm. 396) (1977) 89 (MED) The soule of man is superans and lordshippyng vpon þe body and preponderant [L. preponderans] to it.
1660 tr. M. Amyraut Treat. conc. Relig. ii. ii. 180 If he judge the reasons which disswade the thing as bad to be preponderant [Fr. que les raisons..ont plus de poids], then he will..abstain from doing it.
1796 Times 1 Aug. 3/1 When her triumphant armies are nearly surrounding that Republic, she assumes the imperious tone of a preponderant power.
1799 S. Turner Hist. Anglo-Saxons I. ii. i. 171 Ella is commemorated as the preponderant Saxon chief.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 239 The Roundhead party was now decidedly preponderant.
1866 J. Martineau Ess. Philos. & Theol. 1st Ser. 3 The exact sciences constituted the preponderant discipline.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VIII. 77 Flexion at the metacarpo-phalangeal joints..from preponderant contraction of the interossei.
1938 W. Lippmann Good Society ii. viii. 146 The dominion..and the preponderant influence which she [sc. Great Britain] exercised..were not felt to be intolerable.
1988 B. Cooper Alexander Kennedy Isbister ii. ix. 260 The..fear and envy felt by the old province of Canada for the preponderant power of the continent, the United States.
2005 Irish Times (Nexis) 11 Aug. 15 This is a political crisis..for the European Union—and hence for the geographical and cultural Europe of which it now forms the preponderant part.
2. Greater in weight, heavier.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > weight or relative heaviness > [adjective] > heavy > more
preponderant1664
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. ii. 136 The internal Cylinder of Quicksilver in the Tube is not held up by the preponderant Ayr without.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Overpoise, preponderant weight.
1815 W. Scott Antiquary I. ix. 121 Had the superincumbent weight of her headdress..been less preponderant, her grey locks must have started up on end, and hurled it from its position.
1858 G. Eliot Scenes of Clerical Life II. i. 48 His head hanging forward, weighed down, perhaps, by a preponderant occiput and a bulging forehead.
1958 Times 25 Aug. 10/6 The primary object was to carry the preponderant load as near as possible to the shafts, leaving the lightweights to travel aft.
1993 D. Shay & J. Duncan Making of Jurassic Park 96 When the branches begin to give way under the preponderant weight, Grant and Tim scramble down the tree.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.a1500