Obviated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To eliminate the necessity of something by taking timely steps beforehand
2. Avoided the need for something by acting in advance
3. Made it so that something was no longer required through prior action

Etymology: "Obviated" is the past tense of "obviate," a word that began in the 1500s with a literal sense of blocking someone's path. It was borrowed from Latin "obviātus," the past participle of "obviō," meaning "to block" or "to hinder," itself built from "ob" ("in the way of") and "via" ("road"). So the word's original picture is of something standing in the road in front of you. The meaning then drifted from physically stopping a thing to preventing a difficulty before it arises, and from there to making an action unnecessary. A problem that is obviated is one that never gets the chance to become a problem, because something done earlier has cleared it away. The "-ate" ending, which marks the verb form, was attached to the Latin stem as the word passed into English.

Synonyms: prevented, avoided, eliminated

Antonyms: enabled, allowed, facilitated