preordain

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *per-

Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-

Proto-Indo-European *-i

Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i?

Proto-Italic *prai

Proto-Italic *prai-

Latin prae-lbor.

Middle English pre-

English pre-

English ordain

English preordain

From pre- + ordain.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Verb

preordain (third-person singular simple present preordains, present participle preordaining, simple past and past participle preordained)

1. (transitive) To determine the fate of something in advance.
   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:

     A child! If here the heart turns sick with rath
     To see a little one from birth defiled,
     Or lame or blind, as preordained to languish
     Through youthless life

Synonyms

• foreordain
• predestine
• predetermine

Derived terms

• preordainment

Translations

To determine the fate of something in advance

• Bulgarian: предопределям (bg) (predopredeljam)
• Old English: foreteohhian
• Polish: przesądzać (pl) impf, przesądzić (pl) pf, wyznaczać (pl) impf, wyznaczyć (pl) pf, zarządzać (pl) impf, zarządzić (pl) pf
• Russian: предопределять (ru) (predopredeljatʹ)
• Vietnamese: định trước, sắp đặt (vi), an bài (vi)