foreshow

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English foreschewen, from Old English forescēawian (“to foreshow, foresee; preordain, decree, appoint; provide, furnish with”), equivalent to fore- +‎ show. Cognate with Dutch voorschouwen, German vorschauen.

Alternative forms

• foreshew

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɔːˈʃəʊ/, /fɔəˈʃəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

foreshow (third-person singular simple present foreshows, present participle foreshowing, simple past foreshowed, past participle foreshown)

1. (transitive, archaic) To show in advance; to foretell, predict.
   • 1810, Walter Scott, “Canto II. The Island.”, in The Lady of the Lake; , Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, stanza XXXI, pages 85–86:

     Amid his senses' giddy wheel, / Did he not desperate impulse feel, / Headlong to plunge himself below, / And meet the worst his fears foreshow?— […]

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 314:

     What could the soothsayer foreshow that we knew not before? The future is written in the past; and if we prophesy, it is with eyes that look behind.

2. (transitive, obsolete) To foreshadow or prefigure.
   • 1841, Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England:

     But if the rays break forth out of the middle, or dispersed, and its exterior body, or the out parts of it, be covered with clouds, it foreshows great tempests both of wind and rain.

Derived terms

• foreshower

Etymology 2

From fore- +‎ show.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːʃəʊ/, /ˈfɔəʃəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

foreshow (plural foreshows)

1. (obsolete) A manifestation in advance; a prior indication.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.139:

     The fore-shew of their inclination whilest they are young is so uncertaine that it is very hard, (yea for the wisest) to ground any certaine judgement .