| 词组 | obviate |
| 释义 | obviate Bernstein 1958, 1965 and Follett 1966 seem to have invented the notion that obviate can mean only "make unnecessary," not "anticipate and prevent." They may have arrived at this conclusion by focusing too narrowly on the second part of the definition in Webster's Second. The editors of the OED, Webster's Second, Webster's Third, and Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary were unaware of any such limitation, and so were the writers on whose work they based their definitions. Notice how in many of the following examples the "prevent" sense of obviate is intended: • To obviate the tedium of repeating item (2) over and over again on hundreds of slips —Historical Introduction, OED Supplement, 1933 • He looked at a person once ... and after that he remembered how they looked well enough to obviate another inspection —Tennessee Williams, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, 1950 • ... robs a dealer of gems to obviate his being slaughtered by yeggs —S. J. Perelman, New Yorker, 3 Mar. 1951 • ... even in populations badly shattered by war most of these genetic ill effects could be obviated if monogamy were less of an ingrained human practice —W. C. Allee, Cooperation Among Animals, rev. ed., 1951 • ... its most sizable service is simply in obviating further, future demonstrations of how dull sex can be as a subject for a full evening —Robert Craft, N. Y. Rev. of Books, 6 Nov. 1969 • ... different in such a way as to obviate the second Russian Revolution of 1917 —George F. Kennan, New Yorker, 1 May 1971 • ... the description ... still seems serviceable enough to obviate any need for me to paraphrase my own prose —Jay Jacobs, Gourmet, March 1977 • ... they were plenty alarmed because they felt Mel's film might obviate a movie production of the play —Liz Smith, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 26 Sept. 1979 You are free to follow Bernstein and Follett and avoid the "prevent" sense, but many good writers do not. Flesch 1964 recommends avoiding the word altogether because it "sounds pompous and academic." He suggests do away with, cancel, prevent, forestall, blot out, and meet as alternatives. While all of those words have merit, there are still times when many writers feel obviate is the better choice. |
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