Hindcasted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Estimated what past conditions were by running a computer model backward from known historical data
2. Reconstructed earlier climate or system states by simulating them in reverse from recorded observations
3. Retrospectively modeled a bygone situation using a forecasting method applied to past measurements

Etymology: "Hindcasted" is the past tense and past participle of "hindcast," a verb built from "hind" and "cast." The "cast" here is the sense of calculating or forecasting, as in "to cast a horoscope" or "to cast figures," and "hind" is used in the sense of "back" or "after," as in "hindsight." Put together, a hindcast runs a predictive model backward against past conditions to see whether it would have reproduced what actually happened, a way of testing a forecasting method before trusting it on the future. The "-ed" ending is the ordinary regular past-tense suffix, so the word follows the same pattern as any verb that turns into a past form by adding that ending. Its formation is plain and transparent, and the word's origin lies entirely in the two elements it combines.