Literary notes about Prevailing (AI summary)
The term “prevailing” in literature is employed to indicate that which is dominant or most influential within a given circumstance. Often it designates the leading factor or cause; for instance, it is used to describe the chief cause of death in an epidemic [1] or the foremost opinion in matters of law [2]. It also appears in physical descriptions, such as denoting the dominant color in a landscape [3] or the prevailing winds shaping a bay [4]. In other contexts, it describes the act of persuasion, as when someone is prevailed upon to join an activity [5]. This versatility underscores how "prevailing" captures ideas and forces that are pervasive and commanding in a variety of literary settings.
- Secondary pneumonias, usually broncho-pneumonic in type, are of common occurrence, and in many epidemics constitute the prevailing cause of death.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - Here the prevailing view of the Roman law comes in to fortify principle with precedent.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - White, however, is the prevailing color.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - It affords shelter from the prevailing winds to a semicircular bay on the east.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Another evening Dr. Goldsmith and I called on him, with the hope of prevailing on him to sup with us at the Mitre.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell
