Prognosticate

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /pɹɒɡˈnɒstɪkeɪt/

Definitions

1. To engage in the practice of foretelling future events by interpreting existing information or trends
2. To make informed predictions about possible future occurrences using analysis of current data and observations
3. To forecast what will happen based on signs and knowledge available at the time

Etymology: The Greek root sits at the heart of this word: "gnōsis" meant "knowledge," and "pro-" meant "before," so a "prognōstikos" was something that knew beforehand. Greek physicians used the adjective for diagnosing a disease's likely course from its present symptoms, which is why medicine still uses "prognosis" for the expected outcome of an illness. The sense of forecasting weather, fortunes or the future came later, as the word moved out of medicine. The path to English ran through Latin. Medieval Latin writers formed "prognosticare" from the Greek-derived "prognosticus," and the verb carried its meaning of foretelling into the Romance and English languages. English took it up as "prognosticate," a verb built on that Medieval Latin base, so its shape comes from the Latin "-are" verb ending rather than from any older English word.

Synonyms: predict, foretell, forecast, prophesy

Antonyms: ignore, disregard