Prévaile

Prévaile is an archaic or literary form associated with the French verb prévaloir, meaning to prevail, to prove superior, or to be effective. In modern French, the spelling and usage have largely shifted to prévaloir and its standard conjugations, and prévaile is now encountered mainly in historical texts, glossaries of Old French, or studies of philology. The form is not used in contemporary speech or writing.

Etymology and linguistic context trace prévaile to the Latin praevalēre, “to be strong beforehand” or “to prevail.” Through changes in Old French phonology and orthography, spellings with -vaile or -vail(e) emerged as variants in certain inflectional forms and in poetic or manuscript contexts. Such variants are often discussed by scholars as part of orthographic history and the evolution of French verb morphology.

Usage and appearance in sources are typically limited to scholarly or literary contexts. Prévaile may be cited as an example of regional or period spellings, as well as of the broader phenomenon of form variation before standardization. When encountered, it is usually interpreted as an obsolete form of prévaloir rather than a separate verb.

See also: prévaloir, prévalence, Old French orthography. Further study of prévaile is found in dictionaries and archives that document medieval and early modern French language variation.