purview

From Middle English purveu (“proviso”), from Anglo-Norman purveuest (“it is provided”), or purveu que (“provided that”) (statutory language), from Old French porveu (“provided”), past participle of porveoir (“to provide”), from Latin prōvideō (See provide). Influenced by view and its etymological antecedants.

purview (plural purviews)

1. (law) The enacting part of a statute.
2. (law) The scope of a statute.
3. Scope or range of interest or control.
   • 1788, James Madison, “The Right of the Convention to Frame such a Constitution”, in The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, page 255:

     Will it be said that the fundamental principles of the Confederation were not within the purview of the convention, and ought not to have been varied?

   • 2003, Nicholas Asher and Alex Lascarides, Logics of Conversation, page 7:

     Rhetorical relations have truth conditional effects that contribute to meaning but lie outside the purview of compositional semantics.

4. Range of understanding.

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

• purvey