English edit

Etymology edit

From Latin obventio, from obvenire (to come before or in the way of, to befall), from ob (see ob-) + venire (to come). Compare French obvention.

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ɒbˈvɛnʃən/
    • (file)

Noun edit

obvention (plural obventions)

  1. (obsolete) The act of happening incidentally; that which happens casually; an incidental advantage; an occasional offering.
    • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande [], Dublin: [] Societie of Stationers, [], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland [] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: [] Society of Stationers, [] Hibernia Press, [] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:
      Tithes and other obventions.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; [], London: [] Iohn Williams [], →OCLC:
      Legacies bequeathed by the deaths of princes and great persons, and other casualities and obventions.

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 The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.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