foresight

English

Etymology

From Middle English forsight, forsyght, forsichte, equivalent to fore- +‎ sight. Compare Scots foresicht (“foresight”), Saterland Frisian Foarsicht (“caution”), West Frisian foarútsjoch (“foresight”), Dutch voorzicht (“foresight”), German Vorsicht (“caution; care; attention”).

Noun

foresight (countable and uncountable, plural foresights)

1. The ability to foresee or prepare wisely for the future.

   Having the foresight to prepare an evacuation plan may have saved their lives.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1:

     The rugged forhead that with graue foreſight / Welds kingdomes cauſes, & affaires of ſtate; […]

2. the front sight on a rifle or similar weapon
3. (surveying) a bearing taken forwards towards a new object

Synonyms

• (ability to foresee or prepare wisely for the future): prescience, foreknowledge, divination, clairvoyance, prophecy

Antonyms

• hindsight

Derived terms

• foresightly
• foresighty

Related terms

• foresee
• backsight

Translations

ability to foresee or prepare wisely for the future

• Belarusian: прадба́чанне n (pradbáčannje)
• Bulgarian: предвиждане (bg) n (predviždane), предвидливост (bg) f (predvidlivost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 先見之明／先见之明 (zh) (xiānjiànzhīmíng), 先见之明 (zh) (xiānjiànzhīmíng), 先見／先见 (zh) (xiānjiàn), 先见 (zh) (xiānjiàn)

• Danish: fremsynthed c
• Dutch: voorzichtigheid (nl) f
• Finnish: kaukokatseisuus (fi), harkitsevuus (fi)
• French: clairvoyance (fr) f, prévoyance (fr) f, prescience (fr) f
• German: Voraussicht (de) f, Hellsichtigkeit f
• Greek: πρόνοια (el) f (prónoia)

  Ancient: πρόνοια f (prónoia)

• Irish: fadbhreathnaitheacht f, fadcheann m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: lungimiranza (it) f, preveggenza f, avvedimento m
• Japanese: 先見 (せんけん, senken), 予見 (ja) (よけん, yoken)
• Polish: dalekowzroczność (pl) f, przezorność (pl) f, zapobiegliwość (pl) f
• Portuguese: presciência (pt) f
• Romanian: previziune (ro)
• Russian: предви́дение (ru) n (predvídenije), предусмотри́тельность (ru) f (predusmotrítelʹnostʹ)
• Slovak: predvídavosť, prezieravosť
• Spanish: previsión (es) f, profecía (es) f, adivinación (es), clarividencia f, presciencia (es) f
• Swedish: framsynthet (sv) c
• Ukrainian: передба́чення (uk) n (peredbáčennja)
• Volapük: büologam (vo)

front sight on weapon

• Bulgarian: мушка (bg) f (muška)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 準星／准星 (zh) (zhǔnxīng), 准星 (zh) (zhǔnxīng)

• Finnish: etutähtäin
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: στόχαστρο (el) n (stóchastro)
• Japanese: 照星 (しょうせい, shōsei)
• Polish: muszka (pl) f
• Russian: му́шка (ru) f (múška), визи́р (ru) m (vizír)

Anagrams

• gift horse, gift-horse