26 August 2014

purview

[pur-vyoo]

noun

1. the range of operation, authority, control, concern, etc.
2. the range of vision, insight, or understanding.
3. Law.
that which is provided or enacted in a statute, as distinguished from the preamble.
the purpose or scope of a statute.
4. the full scope or compass of any document, statement, subject, book, etc.

Origin

1225-75; Middle English purveu < Anglo-French: past participle of purveier to purvey

1. scope, responsibility, compass, extent.

Examples for purview

– Perhaps this is because the problem of insomnia was for a long time the purview mainly of psychologists.
– These responses to serve the changing needs of students are by no means the sole purview of the for-profits.
– His purview, however, is mostly limited to the magazine.

Today’s aphorism

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?

– George Orwell

On this day

26 August 580 – toilet paper invented by the Chinese.

26 August 1910 – birth of Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu) in Yugoslavia, winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in the slums of Calcutta. Died 5 September 1997.

26 August 1946 – George Orwell’s revolutionary novel, Animal Farm, is published.