Preventabilities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A measure of the potential to avert undesirable outcomes or situations through proactive actions or interventions
2. The capacity to stop certain events or conditions from occurring through foresight and planning
3. The quality of being able to hinder or eliminate future risks or problems before they materialize

Etymology: "Preventabilities" is the plural of "preventability," which is simply "prevent" with the suffix "-ability" attached. "Prevent" comes from Latin "praevenire," literally "to come before," built from "prae" ("before") and "venire" ("to come"), and it originally meant to anticipate or forestall something rather than stop it outright. The suffix "-ability" comes from Latin "-abilitas" by way of Old French, and it turns a verb into a noun describing the capacity for that action, so "preventability" names the quality of being able to be prevented. The plural form "preventabilities" simply refers to multiple such qualities or instances, most often different risks or problems that could each be averted. The word is a transparent formation of the kind English builds freely from verbs, which is why its meaning is easy to recover from its parts.