Futuristics

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Relating to ideas, designs, or concepts concerned with the future; describing advanced technological innovations and visionary developments; connected with predictions or speculation about what is to come
2. Pertaining to visionary or forward-thinking approaches that emphasize future possibilities; involving speculative technology and conceptual advancements; associated with forecasting trends and progress in time yet to come
3. Characteristic of or related to futuristic themes emphasizing progress and innovation; covering imaginative or forward-looking notions about future society and technology; linked to the anticipation of forthcoming changes and inventions

Etymology: "Futuristics" is the plural noun form of "futurist" in its sense of someone who studies or forecasts the future, and it is most often used for the systematic discipline of forecasting the future. The adjective "futuristic" came first, and "futurist" was used in the early 1900s for a movement of Italian artists led by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose 1909 manifesto celebrated speed, machines and violence and rejected the art of the past. The root is Latin "futurus", the future participle of "esse", "to be", so "future" literally means "about to be." English took "future" in the 14th century, and the "-istic" suffix, from Greek "-istikos", was added to "futurist" to form the adjective. The "-ics" ending, borrowed through Latin from Greek "-ika", marks a body of study, as in "statistics" or "mathematics." The "-ist" in "futurist" follows the same pattern as "artist" or "scientist," naming a practitioner. The forecasting sense of the noun grew in the mid-20th century, when researchers began studying social and technological trends systematically, and "futuristics" came to name that field as a whole.

Synonyms: futurism, futurology, futurist studies