Foresayen

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past participle of a verb meaning to forbid or to renounce something by formal speech, describing what has been prohibited or disavowed
2. Old-fashioned term for something that has been formally forbidden or denied through a solemn spoken declaration
3. Describing a thing that was banned or rejected by explicit verbal pronouncement, as used in older English writing

Etymology: The spelling invites a guess that is wrong: "foresayen" has nothing to do with saying something beforehand. It is a Middle English verb built from the prefix "for-", which in Old English often meant "away" or "against" and gave a sense of prohibition or rejection, plus "sayen", from Old English "secgan", to say. Its base sense was therefore closer to "to speak against" than "to predict," and the verb was used to mean forbid, deny, or renounce. Its closest modern relative is "forsake," which descends from a related Old English verb, "forsacan," meaning to deny or reject. The two words share the same prefix and a similar sense of turning away, but "forsake" came through a different verb, so they are cousins rather than the same word. Because "foresayen" appears only in older English texts, its exact dating and usage are uncertain, and dictionaries record it mainly as a spelling variant of the Middle English verb.