Word of the Day

: February 2, 2024

prognosticate

verb prahg-NAHSS-tuh-kayt

What It Means

To prognosticate is to predict or foreshadow something.

// Our company uses current trends to prognosticate what the workplace of the future will be like.

See the entry >

prognosticate in Context

“What-ifs are almost always registered as negative. We prognosticate the worst-case scenarios probably as a means to be prepared for the worst. ‘Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst’ is a well-known adage that programs negative thinking.” — Bruce Wilson, Psychology Today, 7 May 2023

Did You Know?

Prognosticate, which ultimately traces back to the Greek word prognōstikos (“knowing beforehand, prescient”), first appears in English during the 15th century. Since that time, prognosticate has been connected with things that foreshadow events to come and with people who can prophesy or predict the future by such signs. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley used the “prophesy” sense of prognosticate in her Gothic horror novel Frankenstein as Victor Frankenstein writes of his feelings upon approaching Geneva: “I wept like a child. ‘Dear mountains! my own beautiful lake! how do you welcome your wanderer? Your summits are clear; the sky and lake are blue and placid. Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?’” Other English words stitched together from prognōstikos that you may be familiar with include the nouns prognostic and prognosis, which also have senses related to foretelling. Prognostic can mean “prophecy,” while prognosis—used often in medical contexts to refer to the prospect of a patient’s recovery—can also mean “forecast.”