Word of the Day

: March 20, 2009

vatic

adjective VAT-ik

What It Means

: prophetic, oracular

vatic in Context

The vatic voice of these poems, untempered by humor or irony, sounds more pretentious than profound.

Did You Know?

Some people say only thin lines separate poetry, prophecy, and madness. We don't know if that's generally true, but it is in the case of "vatic." The adjective derives directly from the Latin word "vates," meaning "seer" or "prophet." But that Latin root is in turn distantly related to an Old English word for "poetry," an Old High German word for "madness," and an Old Irish word for "seer" or "poet."