preponderate

English

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for preponderate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Etymology

From Latin praeponderatus, past participle of praeponderāre (“to outweigh”)

Verb

preponderate (third-person singular simple present preponderates, present participle preponderating, simple past and past participle preponderated)

1. (transitive) To outweigh; to be heavier than; to exceed in weight

   Synonym: overbalance

   • 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica

     an inconsiderable weight by virtue of its distance from the Centre of the Ballance, will preponderate much greater magnitudes

2. (transitive) To overpower by stronger or moral power.
   • 1898, William Graham Sumner, “The Conquest of the United States by Spain”, in War and Other Essays, Yale, page 359:

     That is the preponderating consideration to which everything else has to yield.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to prefer; to incline; to decide.
   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, and the Profane State:

     The desire to spare Christian blood preponderates him for peace.

4. (intransitive) To exceed in weight; hence, to predominate
   • 1861, John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism‎^[1]:

     […] if the principle of utility is good for anything, it must be good for weighing these conflicting utilities against one another, and marking out the region within which one or the other preponderates.

Related terms

• preponder
• preponderance
• preponderant

References

• preponderate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• preponderate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.