That which prevails is mentioned as prevailing.
In order to know the meaning of the prevailing term, it is necessary, first of all, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can emphasize that it is a word that derives from Latin, specifically from the verb “imperare”, which can be translated as “to command” and that is the result of the sum of two lexical components:
-The prefix “in-”, which means “inwards”.
-The verb “parare”, which is synonymous with “order” or “prepare”.
Concept of prevailing
Prevailing is that which prevails . The verb imperar , in turn, refers to command or predominate .
For example: “The racism prevailing in the society of that time caused numerous problems” , “There are many organizations that are fighting against the prevailing machismo” , “The illegality prevailing in this sector of the economy causes the State to deprive itself of raise millions of pesos.”
The predominant
What prevails, in short, is what is preponderant . Suppose a political analyst states that corruption is prevalent in a certain government. This means that, for this specialist, there are many officials who act outside the law, committing crimes. Corruption, in this framework, does not appear in isolated events or in sporadic cases, but is very frequent at the government level.
Dominant, reigning or predominant are some of the synonyms that exist for the prevailing word that concerns us now. However, we also have to emphasize that among its antonyms we find words such as obsolete, resigned, forgotten or expired, for example.
If a journalist affirms that corruption is prevalent in a government, he considers that this crime is very common among authorities and officials.
Examples of prevailing
A sports journalist, on the other hand, can analyze the performance of a soccer team in a match and come to the conclusion that the prevailing nervousness affected the team as a whole. For this reporter, nerves led the players to make numerous mistakes, from poorly given passes to mistakes in the defensive zone. This prevailing nervousness ended up defining the team's performance, which turned out to be very poor.
In the field of fashion , meanwhile, thinness is part of the prevailing canon . Models are required to have a certain build, with a low weight and no excess body fat; Otherwise, they are not hired by designers or major clothing brands. The designs themselves, in turn, are aimed at thin people.
The notion in social sciences and literature
In the same way, we cannot ignore the fact that in the field of social sciences there are so-called prevailing theories. These, among other things, make it clear that the cause of hunger in the world is the increase in population, that is, that poor countries are poor because they are very populated.
In the field of literature we find different works that have the word in question in their titles. A good example of this is the book “Los imperantes y su sequito”, which was published in 1997 and is written by the Castilian author and professor Manuel Fernández de Escalante. A book halfway between philosophy and historiography.