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."