Word of the Day

: February 13, 2010

prescience

noun PRESH-ee-unss

What It Means

a : foreknowledge of events:

b : divine omniscience

c : human anticipation of the course of events : foresight

prescience in Context

Stacy had the prescience to know that the stock’s value wasn’t going to remain high forever, so she sold it before it decreased.

Did You Know?

If you know the origin of "science," you already know half the story of "prescience." "Science" comes from the Latin verb "scire," which means "to know" and which is the source of many English words ("conscience," "conscious," and "omniscience," just to name a few). "Prescience" comes from the Latin verb "praescire," which means "to know beforehand." "Praescire" joins the verb "scire" with the prefix "prae-," a predecessor of "pre-." A lesser-known "scire"-derived word is "nescience." "Nescience" means "ignorance" and comes from "scire" plus "ne-," which means "not" in Latin.