vaticinate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vaticinate
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin vāticinātus (past participle of vāticinārī “to prophesy”), equivalent to vāti- (stem of vātēs “seer”) + -cin- (combining form of canere “to sing, prophesy”) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When you vaticinate, you tell the future. A carnival fortune teller might vaticinate that you'll travel the world and have seven children. When you make a prediction about what will happen, whether it's a guess or a prophecy, you vaticinate. You might vaticinate about the next day's weather or what will happen on your favorite television show in the upcoming season. A magician might vaticinate what card you'll pull out of a deck. The Latin root word of vaticinate is vates, which means "prophet."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What the end might be he could not pretend to vaticinate, but "El Pretendiente" would never reign in Madrid.
From Romantic Spain A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) by John Augustus O'Shea
You enquire after Dante's Prophecy: I have not done more than six hundred lines, but will vaticinate at leisure.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
I can't pretend to foresee what will happen among you Englishers at this distance, but I vaticinate a row in Italy; in whilk case, I don't know that I won't have a finger in it.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
"You see I've already become the Homer of your triumphs, and vaticinate in rhyme."
From Eric by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
But Gwyneth and I are not uncomfortably provided for, and I no longer contribute paragraphs of gossip to the Pimlico Postboy, nor yet do I vaticinate in the columns of the Tipster.
From In the Wrong Paradise by Andrew Lang
Her carmine lips vaticinated with an extraordinary rapidity.
From Under Western Eyes by Joseph Conrad
He pontificated and vaticinated from his retreat in the rue Saint-Sulpice, haranguing the reader with an apocalyptic language partaking in spots of the bitterness of an Isaiah.
From Against the Grain by J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
What he means by "cooking his mutton" has not yet transpired, but it is gloomily vaticinated that he intends to boil him down.
From Punchinello, Volume 2, No. 28, October 8, 1870 by Various
Catherine de Médicis carried Henry IV, when a child, to old Nostradamus, who antiquaries esteem more for his Chronicle of Provence than for his vaticinating powers.
From Thaumaturgia by An Oxonian
I have been occasionally struck at the Jeremiads of honest George Withers, the vaticinating poet of our civil wars: some of his works afford many solemn predictions.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Isaac Disraeli
Console yourself by vaticinating in the bower of your bed-chamber, as you count the feet upon your fingers, your own immortality.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 21, July, 1859 by Various
Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV., then a child, to old Nostradamus, whom antiquaries esteem more for his chronicle of Provence than his vaticinating powers.
From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 by Isaac Disraeli
Never had the vaticinating style of oratory a greater vogue.
From Thyrza by George Gissing
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
