presage

See also: pressage, présage, and présagé

English

WOTD – 4 May 2016

Etymology

From Middle French presage, from Latin praesagium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /'pɹɛsɪdʒ/, /pɹɪ'seɪdʒ/
• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ
• Hyphenation: pre‧sage

Noun

presage ‎(plural presages)

1. A warning of a future event; an omen.
2. An intuition of a future event; a presentiment.

Translations

A warning of a future event; an omen

• French: présage (fr) m
• Italian: presagio (it)

• Russian: предзнаменова́ние (ru) n ‎(predznamenovánije)
• Spanish: presagio (es)

An intuition of a future event; a presentiment

• Russian: предчу́вствие (ru) n ‎(predčúvstvije)

• Spanish: presentimiento (es) m, intuición (es) f

Verb

presage ‎(third-person singular simple present presages, present participle presaging, simple past and past participle presaged)

1. (transitive) To predict or foretell something.
   • Shakespeare:

     My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a second term, Obama will confront familiar headwinds”, in The New York Times^[1]:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

2. (intransitive) To make a prediction.
3. (transitive) To have a presentiment of; to feel beforehand; to foreknow.

Synonyms

• foreshadow
• forespell
• portend

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} présager (fr)