Forebodingness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strong sense or feeling that something undesirable or harmful is about to occur
2. An intuitive warning or uneasy feeling suggesting that future events will be unpleasant or dangerous
3. A mood or impression indicating an expectation of negative or threatening developments

Etymology: "Forebodingness" is a plain formation: the noun "foreboding" with the suffix "-ness" attached, which turns an adjective-like quality into a noun for that state or quality. "Foreboding" itself comes from "forebode," a verb built from "fore-" (meaning "before") and "bode" (to portend or predict), so the whole chain points back to the idea of something announcing itself in advance. The suffix does the real work here. "-ness" has been productive in English since Old English, and it attaches to many adjectives and participial forms to name a quality, so "foreboding" plus "-ness" gives a name for the condition of being full of foreboding. Because "foreboding" already names the feeling, "forebodingness" is a more abstract, less common variant that names the quality of that feeling as a thing in itself.

Synonyms: apprehension, dread, premonition

Antonyms: calmness, certainty