preponderance

Etymology

preponderant + -ance

noun

1. (obsolete) Greater physical weight.
   1. (specifically, weaponry, historical) The excess of weight of that part of a cannon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.
2. Superiority in amount or number; the bulk or majority; also, a large amount or number; an abundance, a profusion.
   [S]trong proofs are at hand to shew, that in the Irish people there is a large admixture, if not an overwhelming praeponderance, of Iberian elements. 1857, R[obert] Harries Jones, “Part the Second”, in The Japhetic Races. A Historical and Ethnological Inquiry into the Consanguinity of Various European Races.[…], Göttingen: Printed at the University Press by W. Fr. Kaestner, →OCLC, section II, page 36
   Is there a preponderance of female protagonists in commercial fiction, and if so, what does it mean? 17 August 1997, Patricia Holt, “Just add sand; trash fiction for end-of-the summer beach reading”, in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1
   Subtle, institutional discrimination was evident in the preponderance of blacks and underprivileged whites fighting the war. 17 April 2000, Paul Van Slambrouck, “California’s brightest star is, well, gray”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC
3. Superiority of influence, power, a quality, etc.; an outweighing, predominance, pre-eminence.
   But even less disgruntled observers have insisted that pain and unpleasure are more common in dreams than pleasure: for instance, Scholz (1893, 57), Volkelt (1875, 80), and others. Indeed two ladies, Florence Hallam and Sarah Weed (1896, 499), have actually given statistical expression, based on a study of their own dreams, to the preponderance of unpleasure in dreaming. 1953, Sigmund Freud, “Distortion in Dreams”, in James Strachey, transl., The Interpretation of Dreams (First Part) (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud), volume IV, London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, published 1971, page 134