prevenancy

English

Noun

prevenancy (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) The act of anticipating another's wishes, desires, etc., by way of favour or courtesy; obligingness.
   • 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volumes (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, […]:

     La Fleur's prevenancy (for there was a passport in his very looks) soon set every servant in the kitchen at ease with him

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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 “prevenancy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)