prescience

English

Alternative forms

• præscience (archaic)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English prescience, from Old French prescience, from Latin praescientia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛsɪ.əns/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛʃəns/, /ˈpɹɛsi.əns/, /ˈpɹɛʃiəns/, (sometimes) /ˈpɹi-/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsɪəns

Noun

prescience (usually uncountable, plural presciences)

1. Knowledge of events before they take place. [from 14th c.]
   2. (especially) Such knowledge that is supernatural or paranormal in nature, including the prediction of things that nobody could have known by the ordinary senses.

      Synonyms: precognition, foresight (precognition sense), foreknowledge, clairvoyance, premonition, divination, prophecy, psychicness

      Coordinate term: foretelling

      • 1754, Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency:

        God's certain prescience of the volitions of moral agents

      • 1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, On a Sleeping Infant, page 198:

        O thou, who thus the eye hast veil'd,
        The book of fate so slowly given,
        I thank thee, that thou hast conceal'd
        From man the prescience of heaven.

   4. (sometimes) Such knowledge that comes from wise and thorough forethought (for example, careful planning).

      Synonym: foresight (wisdom sense)

      Near-synonym: forethought

      • 2020 September 23, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 83:

        With prescience, the Barlows designed them to withstand a third more weight than they would be expected to bear in normal conditions - future proofing the bridge for the weight of trains we see using it today.

Related terms

• prescient (adjective)
• prescientific
• protoscience
• protoscientific

Translations

Knowledge of events before they take place; foresight; foreknowledge

• Bulgarian: предвиждане (bg) n (predviždane), далновидност (bg) f (dalnovidnost)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 先見之明 / 先见之明 (zin¹ gin³ zi¹ ming⁴)

• Czech: jasnozřivost f
• Danish: klarsyn n
• Finnish: etukäteistieto
• French: prescience (fr) f
• Galician: presciencia f
• Italian: preveggenza f
• Māori: matakite
• Norwegian: klarsyn n, framsyn
• Portuguese: presciência (pt) f
• Russian: предви́дение (ru) n (predvídenije)
• Spanish: presciencia (es) f
• Welsh: rhagwybodaeth

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin praescientia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʁɛ.sjɑ̃s/ ~ /pʁe.sjɑ̃s/

Noun

prescience f (plural presciences)

1. prescience

Further reading

• “prescience”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012