Obviating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To negate the need for an action by taking preventive measures that circumvent potential complications or problems altogether
2. Making a certain action unnecessary by effectively addressing potential issues beforehand
3. Rendering a requirement obsolete through actions that eliminate the conditions that would cause it

Etymology: Latin "obviare" meant "to meet in the way," and that physical image is the root of the modern sense. The Latin verb "obvius" described something standing in the road, so "obviam ire" was "to go to meet" someone head-on. Latin writers then extended the idea to obstacles: to block or hinder a path was to get in the way of what someone intended. English borrowed the participle "obviatus" in the late 1500s, first attested in 1567, using it in the sense of hindering or forestalling. The modern meaning developed from that sense of intercepting a difficulty before it arrives. To obviate a problem is to clear it out of the way so it never has to be faced, which is why the word now means making something unnecessary rather than merely blocking it. The "-ate" ending is the same verb-forming suffix found in words like "activate" and "indicate," which is why the word has the shape it does.

Synonyms: preventing, avoiding, eliminating

Antonyms: causing, allowing