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Prevention vs Policy - What's the difference?

prevention | policy |

As nouns the difference between prevention and policy

is that prevention is prevention while policy is (obsolete) the art of governance; political science or policy can be a contract of insurance.

As a verb policy is

to regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

prevention

English

Noun

  • (obsolete) The act of going, or state of being, before.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • The greater the distance, the greater the prevention .
  • (obsolete) Anticipation; especially, anticipation of needs, wishes, hazards and risks; hence, precaution; forethought.
  • (Hammond)
    (Shakespeare)
  • The act of preventing or hindering; obstruction of action, access, or approach; thwarting.
  • (South)
  • * Shakespeare
  • Casca, be sudden, for we fear prevention .

    policy

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) policie, from . Compare police.

    Noun

    (policies)
  • (obsolete) The art of governance; political science.
  • * a. 1616 , (William Shakespeare), Henry V , I.1:
  • List his discourse of Warre; and you shall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Musique. / Turne him to any Cause of Pollicy , / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnloose, / Familiar as his Garter
  • (obsolete) A state; a polity.
  • (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.
  • (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.
  • * a. 1594 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus :
  • 'Tis pollicie , and stratageme must doe / That you affect, and so must you resolue, / That what you cannot as you would atcheiue, / You must perforce accomplish as you may.
  • A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body.
  • The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
  • Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 140:
  • These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you
  • * Fuller
  • The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.
  • (now, rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.25:
  • Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy , is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.
  • (Scotland, now, chiefly, in the plural) The grounds of a large country house.
  • * 1955 , (Robin Jenkins), The Cone-Gatherers , Canongate 2012, page 36:
  • Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.
  • (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?
    Derived terms
    * policied * policymaker * policy shift * endowment policy * fiscal policy * honesty is the best policy * monetary policy * policy mix

    Verb

  • To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Policying of cities.''

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) police, from (etyl) polizza, from

    Noun

    (policies)
  • A contract of insurance
  • * Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
  • (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural )
  • A number pool lottery
  • Synonyms
    * (number pool) policy racket
    Derived terms
    * policyholder