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prescient

[ presh-uhnt, ‐ee-uhnt pree-shuhnt, ‐shee-uhnt ]
/ ˈprÉ›Źƒ ənt, ‐i ənt ˈpri ŹƒÉ™nt, ā€Źƒi ənt /
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adjective
having prescience, or knowledge of things or events before they exist or happen; having foresight: The prescient economist was one of the few to see the financial collapse coming.
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Origin of prescient

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Old French, from Latin praesciēns (stem praescient- ), present participle of praescÄ«re ā€œto know beforehand,ā€ equivalent to prae- ā€œbeforeā€ + scÄ«re ā€œto knowā€; cf. pre-; see science

historical usage of prescient

Prescient ā€œknowing things or events before they exist or happenā€ comes from Old and Middle French, ultimately from Latin praesciēns (stem praescient- ), the present participle of the verb praescÄ«scere (in Late Latin praescÄ«re ) ā€œto come to know beforehand.ā€
Going from back to front, praescÄ«scere is a compound verb made up of the inceptive verb scÄ«scere ā€œto get to knowā€ (an inceptive verb is one that shows the beginning of an action), formed from the simple verb scÄ«re ā€œto knowā€ and the inceptive infix -sc-. Prae- is the tricky part: It is the Latin preposition and prefix prae, prae- ā€œin front, ahead, before.ā€
Even in very early Republican times, Latin country dialects simplified the diphthong ae to ē (or long e ), as in rustic Latin hēdus for urban (that is, Roman) haedus ā€œgoat.ā€ By the time of the late Republic, in the first century b.c., and the first century a.d., in early Imperial times, the change from ae to ē became general, first in unaccented vowels and afterward in accented vowels too. By the fourth century, ae and e (or short e ) were also confused, and written texts show baene for Classical Latin bene ā€œwell,ā€ and braevis for Classical Latin brevis ā€œshort.ā€ The Roman grammarian Servius, in a note on the Aeneid, feels it necessary to explain that miserae is the adjective, not the adverb miserē.
The confusion of ae and e persisted throughout ancient, medieval, and modern times. Even today British English prefers the spelling ae, and Americans the spelling e (especially in scientific and medical terms derived via Latin from Greek), as in anaemia and anemia, haemophilia and hemophilia, leukaemia and leukemia, paediatrics and pediatrics.

OTHER WORDS FROM prescient

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Ā© Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use prescient in a sentence

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