prophecy

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English prophecie, from Old French prophetie, from Latin prophētīa, from Ancient Greek προφητεία (prophēteía, “prophecy”), from προφήτης (prophḗtēs, “speaker of a god”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + φημί (phēmí, “I tell”). Displaced native Old English wītgung.

Alternative forms

• prophecie, prophesy (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒfɪsi/
• (General American) enPR: prŏfʹĭ-sē, IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑfɪsi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

prophecy (countable and uncountable, plural prophecies)

1. A prediction, especially one made by a prophet or under divine inspiration.

   French writer Nostradamus made a prophecy in his book.

   • 1862, Margaret Oliphant, The Life of Edward Irving:

     But Nature, prevoyant, tingled into his heart an inarticulate thrill of prophecy.

   • 2000, R. R. Davies, The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles, 1093–1343, →ISBN, page 32:

     Flatterers were indeed beginning to wonder whether Edward I was not a new Arthur in the mould of Merlinic prophecies.

2. The public interpretation of Scripture.

Derived terms

• propheciographer
• prophetation
• propheticism
• propheticly
• prophetly
• prophetocracy
• prophetry
• self-fulfilling prophecy
• self-defeating prophecy

Related terms

• prophesy
• prophet
• prophetic

Translations

prediction

• Afrikaans: voorspelling
• Albanian: profeci (sq) f
• Amharic: ትንቢት (tənbit)
• Arabic: نُبُوءَة f (nubūʔa), تَنَبُّؤ m (tanabbuʔ)
• Armenian: մարգարեություն (hy) (margareutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: peyğəmbərlik
• Belarusian: праро́цтва n (praróctva)
• Bulgarian: проро́чество (bg) n (proróčestvo), предсказание (bg) n (predskazanie)
• Catalan: profecia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 預言／预言 (zh) (yùyán)

• Czech: proroctví (cs) n
• Danish: profeti c, spådom c
• Dutch: voorspelling (nl) f
• Finnish: profetia (fi)
• French: prophétie (fr) f
• Galician: profecía (gl) f
• Georgian: წინასწარმეტყველება (c̣inasc̣armeṭq̇veleba)
• German: Prophezeiung (de) f, Weissagung (de) f
• Gothic: 𐍀𐍂𐌰𐌿𐍆𐌴𐍄𐌾𐌰 m (praufētja)
• Greek: προφητεία (el) f (profiteía)
• Hebrew: נְבוּאָה (he) f (n'vu'á)
• Hindi: भविष्यवाणी f (bhaviṣyavāṇī)
• Hungarian: jóslat (hu), prófécia (hu)
• Icelandic: spá (is) f
• Indonesian: nubuat (id), nujuman (id)
• Irish: tairngreacht f, fáistine f
• Italian: profezia (it) f
• Japanese: 予言 (ja) (よげん, yogen)
• Khmer: ព្យាករណ៍ (km) (pyiəkɑɑ)
• Korean: 예언 (ko) (yeeon)
• Latin: vāticinium n, fatus m, prophētīa n
• Macedonian: пророштво n (proroštvo)
• Malayalam: പ്രവചനം (ml) (pravacanaṁ)
• Maori: kupu whakaari, poropititanga
• Ngazidja Comorian: nubua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: profeti (no) m, spådom m

  Nynorsk: spådom m

• Old Church Slavonic: вражениѥ n (vraženije)
• Old English: wītgung f
• Ottoman Turkish: پیغامبرلك (peygamberlik)
• Plautdietsch: Profeetie f
• Polish: proroctwo (pl) n, przepowiednia (pl) f
• Portuguese: profecia (pt) f
• Quechua: watuy
• Romanian: profeție (ro) f
• Russian: проро́чество (ru) n (proróčestvo), предсказа́ние (ru) n (predskazánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пророчанство n, пророштво n

  Roman: proročánstvo (sh) n, pròroštvo (sh) n

• Slovak: proroctvo n
• Slovene: prerokba (sl) f
• Spanish: profecía (es) f
• Swahili: utabiri (sw)
• Swedish: profetia (sv) c
• Tagalog: hawo
• Thai: พยากรณ์ (th) (pá-yaa-gɔɔn), ลาง (th) (laang), คำทำนาย (kam-tam-naai)
• Turkish: vahiy (tr)
• Ukrainian: проро́цтво n (proróctvo)
• Vietnamese: tiên tri (vi)
• Yiddish: נבֿואה f (nevue)

Etymology 2

Verb

prophecy (third-person singular simple present prophecies, present participle prophecying, simple past and past participle prophecied)

1. (chiefly dated) Alternative form of prophesy
   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 53:

     […] think of the kind pains you took to reason and persuade me out of my fears, convince me that I should like it after a little while, and feel how right you proved to be, I am inclined to hope you may always prophecy as well.

   • 1967, George King, The Five Temples Of God, The Aetherius Society (2014 edition), page 19:

     The manipulation of these tremendous beneficient energies helped the world so well that the vast majority of these prophecied catastrophies did not happen.

   • 2001, Marjorie Garber, "“ ” (Quotation Marks)", in S.I. Salamensky, Talk, Talk, Talk: The Cultural Life of Everyday Conversation, Routledge, page 142:

     One prophecied a change of fortunes for the club: […]

   • 2013, Theodor Adorno, The Jargon of Authenticity, Routledge, page 135:

     The Heideggerian tone of voice is indeed prophecied in Schiller’s discussion of dignity.

   • 2014, Emran El-Badawi, The Qur'an and the Aramaic Gospel Traditions, Routledge, page 85:

     the parable in Mark 12:1—5 where some of Jesus’s followers who prophecied and were martyred in Antioch (Q 36;13—25; cf. 11:91);

Middle English

Noun

prophecy

1. Alternative form of prophecie