FromMiddle Englishperaventure,peradventure, fromOld Frenchpar aventure. Spelling modified as though from Latin. Equivalent toper- +adventure.
peradventure (notcomparable)
- (archaic)Perchance ormaybe;perhaps;supposing.
1554,John Knox,A Godly Letter of Warning or Admonition to the Faithfull in London, Newcastle, and Berwick[1]:For be God the Propheit was commandit to stand in the entress of the Lordis house, and to speik to all the cieties of Juda that come to wirschip in the house of the Lord; and was commandit to keip no word aback, gifperadventure, sayeth the Lord, thay will herkin and turne everie man frome his wickit way.
c.1603–1604 (date written),William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act IV, scene vi],page79, column 2:Beſides he tells me, that, ifperaduenture / He ſpeake againſt me on the aduerse ſide, / I ſhould not thinke it ſtrange, for 'tis a phyſicke / That's bitter, to ſweet end.
1651,Thomas Hobbes, chapter 13, inLeviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] forAndrew Crooke, […],→OCLC:It mayperadventure be thought there was never such a time nor condition of warre as this; and I believe it was never generally so, over all the world; but there are many places, where they live so now.
1856,Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, inAurora Leigh, London:Chapman and Hall, […], published1857,→OCLC,page123:Often, too, / The pedlar stopped, and tapped her on the head / With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed, / And asked ifperadventure she could read.
peradventure (pluralperadventures)
- Chance,doubt oruncertainty.
1716,Thomas Browne, edited bySamuel Johnson,Christian Morals[2], 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published1756,Part I, p. 16:Covetousness cracks the sinews of faith; numbs the apprehension of any thing above sense; and only affected with the certainty of things present, makes aperadventure of things to come[…]
1800,William R. Thayer, “Woman Suffrage, Pro and Con”, inThe Atlantic Monthly[3], volume65, page310:By his death Bruno did not prove that his convictions are true, but he proved beyondperadventure that he was a true man; and by such from the beginning has human nature been raised towards that ideal nature which we call divine.
peradventure
- Alternative spelling ofperaventure
