supervene, v.
(s(j)uːpəˈviːn)
[ad. L. supervenīre, f. super- super- 13 + venīre to come. Cf. OF. so(u)rvenir (mod.F. survenir), Pr. sobrevenir, It. sopravvenire, Sp. sobrevenir, Pg. sobrevir.]
1. intr. To come on or occur as something additional or extraneous; to come directly or shortly after something else, either as a consequence of it or in contrast with it; to follow closely upon some other occurrence or condition.
| 1647–8 Sir C. Cotterell Davila's Hist. Fr. (1678) 11 Upon a sudden supervened the death of the king. 1664 J. Exton Maritime Dicaeologie i. iv. 16 New differences and controversies arising and supervening, which they could not judge or determine by the Rhodian Laws. 1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 386 Soon after, a vomiting of an offensive and greenish-coloured fluid supervened. 1849 C. Brontë Shirley ii, A bad harvest supervened. Distress reached its climax. 1867 Pearson Hist. Eng. I. 409 The king was bruised by the pommel of his saddle; fever supervened, and the injury proved fatal. 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. |
b. Const. on, upon, rarely to (the preceding occurrence, condition, etc.).
| 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. (1693) 29 This power [sc. mutual gravitation]..cannot be..essential to Matter. And..it could never supervene to it, unless..infus'd into it by an immaterial..Power. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. x, A kind of..Jew's-harping and scrannel-piping..to which the frightfullest species of Magnetic Sleep soon supervened. 1850 Gladstone Glean. V. cxx. 243 Upon this there supervened..that idea of royal power [etc.]. 1868 ― Juv. Mundi ii. (1869) 43 Upon this local name [Argeioi] there had supervened..the paramount and wider name of Achaioi. 1870 Daily News 1 Dec., Typhus supervening on a gunshot wound. |
† 2. trans. To come directly or soon after, to follow closely (= supervene upon, 1 b); occas. to come after so as to take the place of, to supersede.
| 1725 Phil. Trans. XXXIII. 392 The Fever frequently supervening a Surfeit. 1788 T. Taylor Proclus I. Diss. 17 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. |
Hence superˈvener, something that supervenes; in quot. applied to a substance added to another.
| 1656 [? J. Sergeant] tr. T. White's Peripat. Inst. 63 When the supervener has aggregated to it self the parts of that humid body wherein the dissolution was made. |