Foreboding

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. A feeling that something bad or unpleasant is about to happen ; a sign that suggests future misfortune
2. An intuition or uneasy anticipation of danger or disaster ; an omen indicating that something harmful may occur
3. A strong impression that adverse events are near ; a warning signal or hint of coming trouble

Etymology: "Foreboding" is a compound of "fore-", meaning "before" or "in advance," and "bode," an Old English verb meaning to announce or portend, so the whole word literally means a bodeing beforehand. Middle English speakers shaped it from "forbodyng" and "vorboding," and the "-ing" ending turns the verb into a noun for the act or sense of foretelling. The word's core idea is announcement. "Bode" once carried no sense of doom at all; a thing could bode good or bode ill, and the word simply meant that something was a sign of what was coming. Over time the sense narrowed toward the unfavourable, so that a foreboding came to mean an uneasy premonition of trouble rather than any prediction. A German cousin shows the same logic: "Vorbote" means "harbinger" or "omen," built on the same idea of a messenger or sign running ahead of events. English kept the forward-looking prefix and the notion of advance warning, but the feeling it names is now felt in the gut rather than read in the sky.

Synonyms: ominous, threatening, sinister, portentous, menacing

Antonyms: promising, hopeful, cheerful