Precautionary means taken in advance to guard against a risk. A precautionary measure, precautionary principle, purely precautionary.
The precautionary principle is a real rule in environmental law: where an action might cause serious harm, the absence of proof is not a reason to go ahead. As an ordinary word it softens whatever it describes.
1adjectiveprecautionaryTaken in advance to guard against a risk.
“As a precautionary measure, the school was closed while the gas leak was repaired.”
precautionary is a quality.
Latin
praecautio
French
précaution
English
precaution
English, today
precautionary
Built from
From precaution + -ary. precaution comes from French précaution, Latin praecautio, from praecavere, praecautum (“to guard against beforehand”); prae (“before”) + cavere (“be on one's guard”). See pre-, and caution.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA