Warn vs Prevent - What's the difference?
warn | prevent |
To make (someone) aware of impending danger etc.
To caution (someone) against unwise or unacceptable behaviour.
To notify (someone) of something untoward.
To give warning.
* 1526 , William Tyndale, tr. Bible , Galatians II, 9-10:
* 1973 , Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow , Penguin 1995, p. 177:
* 1988 , Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses , Picador 2000, p. 496:
* 1991 , Clive James, ‘Making Programmes the World Wants’, The Dreaming Swimmer , Jonathan Cape 1992:
(label) To refuse, deny (someone something).
*:
*:And yf thou warne' her loue she shalle goo dye anone yf thou haue no pyte on her / that sygnefyeth the grete byrd / the whiche shalle make the to ' warne her
To stop; to keep (from happening).
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Tom Fordyce
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland
, work=BBC Sport
* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
(obsolete) To come before; to precede.
* Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
* Book of Common Prayer
* Prior
(obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
(obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
* Alexander Pope
In transitive terms the difference between warn and prevent
is that warn is to notify (someone) of something untoward while prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening).warn
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) warnian, from (etyl) . Cognate with German warnen, Dutch waarnen.Verb
(en verb)- We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic.
- He was warned against crossing the railway tracks at night.
- Don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.
- I phoned to warn him of the rail strike.
- then Iames Cephas and Iohn [...] agreed with vs that we shuld preache amonge the Hethen and they amonge the Iewes: warnynge only that we shulde remember the poore.
- She is his deepest innocence in spaces of bough and hay before wishes were given a different name to warn that they might not come true [...].
- She warned that he was seriously thinking of withdrawing his offer to part the waters, ‘so that all you'll get at the Arabian Sea is a saltwater bath [...]’.
- Every country has its resident experts who warn that imported television will destroy the national consciousness and replace it with Dallas'', ''The Waltons'', ''Star Trek'' and ''Twin Peaks .
Usage notes
* The intransitive sense is considered colloquial by some, and is explicitly proscribed by, for example, the Daily Telegraph style guide (which prefers give warning).Derived terms
* warner * warning * warn offEtymology 2
From a combination of (etyl) wiernan (from (etyl) ; compare Swedish varna).Verb
(en verb)Anagrams
* English reporting verbsprevent
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(en verb)- I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
citation, page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}
- ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
- We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
- Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
- With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
- their ready guilt preventing thy commands