- 1
To supervene is for something new to arrive on top of a situation that was already going on, and change it — usually by getting in the way. A plan is running; then illness supervenes, or war supervenes, or a storm supervenes, and the plan stops. The feel of the word is: unexpected, from outside, and it lands on something already in progress. This is a formal, written word. You will see it in legal writing (contracts talk about 'supervening events' that excuse someone from a promise they can no longer keep), in medicine (an infection supervening on top of an existing illness), and in old-fashioned narrative prose. In ordinary speech nobody says it; they say 'then X happened', 'X got in the way', 'X came up'. It also has a special use in philosophy, where 'A supervenes on B' means A depends completely on B — if B is the same, A must be the same. That meaning is unrelated in feel and only appears in academic work.
（意外地）發生、接踵而至（正式用語，常指打斷原有進程）
組成From Latin supervenire: super- (over, upon) + venire (to come). Literally 'to come upon' — the picture is one thing arriving on top of another.
同家族的字
- convenecon- 'together' + venire 'come' — to come together for a meeting
- interveneinter- 'between' + venire 'come' — to come in between
- preventpre- 'before' + venire 'come' — to come before and block
- evente- 'out' + venire 'come' — what comes out, what happens
- adventuread- 'to' + venire 'come' — a thing about to come to you
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
superveneverb
- 1
To follow (something) closely, either as a consequence or in contrast.
- The disease was regarded as pneumonia so far advanced that suppuration seemed to have supervened; bleeding, blisters, expectorants, and cathartics diminished the symptoms; the pulse continued frequent, hard, full, but always regular.
- The taste and digestion are often depraved, anorexia, nausea, inappetence and vomiting supervene, the woman desires innutritious or disgusting food, such as chalk, cinders, putrescent animal food, […]
- 2
To supersede.
- 3
To be dependent on an earlier event.
- 4
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesTo be dependent on something else for existence, truth, or instantiation.
- For instance, an idiosyncratic necessitist might claim that even if a river were not spatiotemporally located, it would still be ugly or beautiful in ways that do not supervene on anything else.
- 5
To occur as an interruption or change to an existing situation.
- The best work was after Bishops Stortford, as we attained 55 m.p.h. after Stansted, and were going well up the short bank when the Elsenham permanent way check supervened.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。