supervenev.
/ˌsuːpəˈviːn/, /ˌsjuːpəˈviːn/, U.S. /ˌsupərˈvin/ 1.
a. intransitive. Of a condition, incident, etc.: to occur as a change, interruption, or (esp. more important) addition to an existing situation; to come directly or shortly afterwards as a consequence or in contrast; to follow closely.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [verb (intransitive)] > supervene or happen as something additional
supervene1636
incur1786
the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > succession or following in time > ensue or come next [verb (intransitive)]
followOE
succeedc1450
ensue1485
supervene1636
survene1666
to roll on ——1681
1636 tr. J. Desmarets de Saint-Sorlin Ariana i. viii. 172 To have newes one of another, in case the businesse went hard, for to give advice of all should passe, and remedy the disorders might supervene [Fr. survenir].
1647 C. Cotterell & W. Aylesbury tr. E. C. Davila Hist. Civill Warres France i. 22 Upon a sudden supervened the death of Henry the second.
1664 J. Exton Maritime Dicæol. i. iv. 16 New differences and controversies arising and supervening, which they could not judge or determine by the Rhodian Laws.
1767 B. Gooch Pract. Treat. Wounds I. 433 I have divided the Prepuce several times in Phimoses, without any ill accidents supervening.
1783 P. Clare Pract. Treat. Gonorrhœa 32 With a certain quantity of wine, hardness, fullness, and acceleration of the pulse will supervene.
1804 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 12 386 Soon after, a vomiting of an offensive and greenish-coloured fluid supervened.
1849 C. Brontë Shirley I. ii. 39 A bad harvest supervened. Distress reached its climax.
1883 Daily Tel. 10 Nov. 5/2 The marked change which has supervened in the habits and tastes of the junior members of both Universities.
1938 E. G. Richardson Physical Sci. Mod. Life i. 24 The object of the designer is to preserve this type of flow round his test section to as high a speed as possible before the breakdown to a turbulent wake supervenes.
1979 W. B. Ober Boswell's Clap & Other Ess. i. 25 The most likely explanation is..that secondary infection supervened, and that the ‘sore’ was some form of local pyogenic abscess.
2001 S. Walton Out of It (2002) ii. 36 The debate spun out of control, until the inevitable crash landing of alcoholic collapse supervened.
b. intransitive. With on, upon, or †to the preceding occurrence, condition, etc.
ΚΠ
1649 Bp. J. Hall Resol. & Decisions iv. vi. 459 By an affinity supervening upon the sinfull copulation of one of the parties with the neare kinswoman of the other.
1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 29 This power [sc. mutual gravitation]..cannot be..essential to Matter. And..it could never supervene to it, unless..infused into it by an immaterial..Power.
1759 Monthly Rev. Mar. 229 He indulged himself with so little discretion, that a fever supervened on his immoderate gluttony.
1777 J. Rutty in Crit. Rev. Sept. 301 It is recommended in weaknesses supervening on chronic diseases, particularly after intermitting fevers.
1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 99/2 A kind of..Jew's-harping and scrannel-piping..to which the frightfullest species of Magnetic Sleep soon supervened.
1850 W. E. Gladstone Remarks Royal Supremacy 52 Upon this there supervened..that idea of Royal power [etc.].
1870 Daily News 1 Dec. Typhus supervening on a gunshot wound.
1921 Mil. Surgeon 48 292 A considerable number of patients..reported sick only after pneumonia had supervened upon influenza.
1980 G. MacGregor Scotland vi. 80 A general distaste for religious dogma, a distaste that had naturally supervened on the vitriolic quarrels of the preceding century.
2008 N. Smith I was Wrong ii. 88 The case of the friend who is attacked while waiting for me after I fail to meet her..: I did something wrong, but another's actions may supervene upon mine.
2. transitive. To come directly or shortly after (a condition, occurrence, etc.) as a consequence or in contrast; to follow closely upon. Also (now chiefly): to come after so as to take the place of; to supersede.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > relative time > the future or time to come > succession or following in time > succeed or follow [verb (transitive)]
followOE
suec1400
ensue1491
succeed?1526
sequel1594
pursue1658
supervene1661
survene1665
succeed1687
1661 T. Whitaker Elenchus of Opinions Cure of Small Pox 81 A fever supervening a convulsion is good.
1726 Philos. Trans. 1725 (Royal Soc.) 33 392 The Fever frequently supervening a Surfeit.
1788 T. Taylor Diss. Platonic Doctr. Ideas in tr. Proclus Philos. & Math. Comm. I. p. xvii It first perceives a thing destitute of ornament, and afterwards the operations of the adorning artificer supervening its nature.
1810 in Dk. Buckingham's Mem. Geo. III (1855) IV. 430 This triumph..although..it affects the..situation..is not so decisive..as to supervene the necessity of a change.
1871 Naut. Mag. Mar. 162 The headache and dejected state of mind that supervene a night of parting with a bachelor friend about to bind himself with matrimonial chains.
1900 J. G. da Cunha Origin of Bombay 191 General prosperity..was fully restored, notwithstanding the calamity of scarcity supervening the disastrous hurricane.
1990 Dict. Canad. Biogr. XII. 1045/2 Did perhaps the wording of the Manitoba Act of 1870 supervene the 1867 BNA Act?
2006 W. C. Frederick Corporation, be Good! 179 The human modular brain houses and expresses ancestral impulses that can contradict and supervene a social contract's reciprocal morals.
3. intransitive. Philosophy. Of a quality or property: to be dependent on (or upon) a further underlying quality or property for its existence; to be present by virtue of the presence of other specified attributes.Often associated with Richard Mervyn Hare (1919–2002), British philosopher; the author of the article cited in quot. 1950 mentions the influence of Hare on the concepts he presents; see also quot. 1952 at supervenient adj. 3 and quot. 1952 at supervenience n. 2.
ΚΠ
1950 J. O. Urmson in Mind 59 155 X-ness..is a non-natural, intuitable, toti-resultant character supervening on situations in which A B C are present, necessarily, but synthetically, connected with A B C.
1979 M. Pastin in G. S. Pappas Justif. & Knowl. 152 Epistemic facts depend on, are a function of, or, in the jargon I prefer, supervene on, non-epistemic facts.
1993 Philos. Issues 4 238 Perceptual content supervenes upon whatever the phenomenal character of the subject's experience supervenes upon.
2008 M. J. Almeida Metaphysics of Perfect Beings vi. 116 The property of being gold and the property of having atomic number 79 are metaphysical identicals, and being gold supervenes on having atomic number 79.
Derivatives
ΚΠ
1656 tr. T. White Peripateticall Inst. 63 When the supervener has aggregated to it self the parts of that humid body wherein the dissolution was made.
1824 J. G. Lockhart Hist. Matthew Wald 380 Piles and piles of leaden coffins all about, the undermost ones, of course, beat quite flat with the weight of the superveners.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
v.1636