Upcoming

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Anticipated to occur or take place shortly in time
2. Relating to future events or instances that are set to happen soon
3. Happening or expected in the near future

Etymology: "Upcoming" is a plain English compound: "up" combined with "coming," the present participle of "come." The pairing is old. "Upcome," meaning to arrive or come up, existed in Middle English, and "upcoming" grew from it by adding the "-ing" ending, which is why the word looks like a participle even though it now works as an adjective. The sense of approaching in time is the part that has shifted. Literally, "up" pictured something rising toward you, so coming up was a physical approach. Over time that movement became one of events drawing near, and that is the meaning the word carries today. Because the word is built transparently from familiar parts, there is no hidden foreign root or dramatic reversal to uncover. Its story is simply the everyday verb "come" pushed upward and forward until it meant something arriving in the near future.

Synonyms: impending, approaching, forthcoming, imminent

Antonyms: past, previous, former