foresight

From Middle English forsight, forsyght, forsichte (since 14th c.), a calque from providentia equivalent to fore- +‎ sight. Compare Scots foresicht (“foresight”), Saterland Frisian Foarsicht (“caution”), West Frisian foarútsjoch (“foresight”), Dutch voorzicht (“foresight”), German Vorsicht (“caution; care; attention”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹsaɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːsaɪt/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfo(ː)ɹsaɪt/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfoəsaɪt/
• Homophone: Forsyte (horse–hoarse merger)
• Hyphenation: fore‧sight

• Audio (US):

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foresight (countable and uncountable, plural foresights)

1. The ability to foresee or prepare wisely for the future.

   Having the foresight to prepare an evacuation plan may have saved their lives.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 1:

     The rugged forhead that with graue foreſight / Welds kingdomes cauſes, & affaires of ſtate; […]

   • 1822, John Barclay, chapter I, in An Inquiry Into the Opinions, Ancient and Modern, Concerning Life and Organization‎, Edinburgh, London: Bell & Bradfute; Waugh & Innes; G. & W. B. Whittaker, section I, page 2:

     In the dead state all is apparently without motion. No agent within indicates design, intelligence, or foresight: […]

   • 2020 May 20, Industry Insider, “An online boost for freight”, in Rail, page 68:

     The specifiers of the Freightliner network had the foresight to base the rail journey on carrying ISO containers which are 8ft wide and originally 8ft tall (although now increased to a height of 9ft 6ins), with a variety of lengths.

2. the front sight on a rifle or similar weapon
3. (surveying) a bearing taken forwards towards a new object

• (ability to foresee or prepare wisely for the future): prescience, foreknowledge, divination, clairvoyance, prophecy

• hindsight

• foresighted
• foresightly
• foresighty

• foresee
• backsight

• gift horse