preponderate

English

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 or influence; hence, to predominate.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 22:

     Anxiety preponderated over hope; and it was scarcely possible for Evelyn to encounter a danger not previously conjured up by the alarmed fancy of his mistress.

   • 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.

   • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in Railway Magazine, page 161:

     Train journeys were not long in terms of distance, and having regard to these factors, the tank engine inevitably preponderated.

Related terms

• preponder
• preponderance
• preponderant

References

• “preponderate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “preponderate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Spanish

Verb

preponderate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of preponderar combined with te