Predestinated

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Being established in advance by a higher power or fate
2. Involving an inevitable outcome predetermined by a divine influence or cosmic order
3. Having been fixed or decided before anything happens, usually by a supernatural force

Etymology: "Predestinated" is an older form of "predestined," and it is the one that came first. Its root is the Latin verb "praedestinare," formed from "prae" (before) and "destinare" (to make firm, fix, or settle), so the literal sense is "fixed beforehand." The Latin "destinare" is itself tied to "destina," a support or prop, so the idea of something being firmly set in place sits underneath the modern sense of fate. English took the word through Old French, where "predestiner" appeared, and it was used in theological writing from the late 1300s onward, with "predestinate" as the verb and this adjective following from it. The "-ed" ending made it an adjective describing whatever has been decided ahead of time. Over the following centuries "predestined" largely displaced it, and "predestinated" now survives mainly in older religious texts and in deliberate archaic style.

Synonyms: foreordained, fated, destined

Antonyms: free, uncontrolled, independent