v. [ad. L. supervenīre, f. super- SUPER- 13 + venīre to come. Cf. OF. so(u)rvenir (mod.F. survenir), Pr. sobrevenir, It. sopravvenire, Sp. sobrevenir, Pg. sobrevir.]
1. intr. To come on or occur as something additional or extraneous; to come directly or shortly after something else, either as a consequence of it or in contrast with it; to follow closely upon some other occurrence or condition.
1647–8. Cotterell, Davila’s Hist. Fr. (1678), 11. Upon a sudden supervened the death of the king.
1664. Exton, Maritime Dicaeologie, I. iv. 16. New differences and controversies arising and supervening, which they could not judge or determine by the Rhodian Laws.
1804. Med. Jrnl., XII. 386. Soon after, a vomiting of an offensive and greenish-coloured fluid supervened.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, ii. A bad harvest supervened. Distress reached its climax.
1867. Pearson, Hist. Eng., I. 409. The king was bruised by the pommel of his saddle; fever supervened, and the injury proved fatal.
1883. Daily Tel., 10 Nov., 5/2. The marked change which has supervened in the habits and tastes of the junior members of both Universities.
b. Const. on, upon, rarely to (the preceding occurrence, condition, etc.).
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., vii. (1693), 29. This power [sc. mutual gravitation] … cannot be essential to Matter. And … it could never supervene to it, unless … infus’d into it by an immaterial … Power.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. x. A kind of … Jew’s-harping and scrannel-piping … to which the frightfullest species of Magnetic Sleep soon supervened.
1850. Gladstone, Glean., V. cxx. 243. Upon this there supervened … that idea of royal power [etc.]. Ibid. (1868), Juv. Mundi, ii. (1869), 43. Upon this local name [Argeioi] there had supervened … the paramount and wider name of Achaioi.
1870. Daily News, 1 Dec. Typhus supervening on a gunshot wound.
† 2. trans. To come directly or soon after, to follow closely (= supervene upon, 1 b); occas. to come after so as to take the place of, to supersede.
1725. Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 392. The Fever frequently supervening a Surfeit.
1788. T. Taylor, Proclus, I. Diss. p. xvii. It first perceives a thing destitute of ornament, and afterwards the operations of the adorning artificer supervening its nature.
1810. in Dk. Buckingham’s Mem. Geo. III. (1855), IV. 430. This triumph … although it affects the … situation … is not so decisive … as to supervene the necessity of a change.
Hence Supervener, something that supervenes; in quot. applied to a substance added to another.
1656. [? J. Sergeant], trans. T. White’s Peripat. Inst., 63. When the supervener has aggregated to it self the parts of that humid body wherein the dissolution was made.
