presage

English

Alternative forms

• præsage (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English presage, from Latin praesāgium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛsɪdʒ/, /pɹɪˈseɪdʒ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛsɪdʒ, -eɪdʒ
• Hyphenation: pre‧sage

Noun

presage (plural presages)

1. A warning of a future event; an omen.
   • a. 1786, [Richard Glover], “Book the Twenty-eighth”, in , editor, The Athenaid, a Poem, , volume III, London: T Cadell, , published 1787, →OCLC, page 213, lines 354–357:

     Speak frankly, Mirzes—nor believe thy words, / Whatever black preſages they contain, / Subjoin'd to all Trophonius hath foretold, / Can change my firm reſolves, or blunt my ſword.

2. An intuition of a future event; a presentiment.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women , volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, stanza 22, page 143:

     Glad was I when I reached the other bank. / Now for a better country. Vain presage!

Translations

Verb

presage (third-person singular simple present presages, present participle presaging, simple past and past participle presaged)

1. (transitive) To predict or foretell something.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
     (Q2 version):

     If I may truſt the flattering truth of ſleepe, / My dreames preſage ſome ioyfull newes at hand : / My boſomes L. ſits lightly in his throne : / And all this day an vnaccuſtom’d ſpirit, / Lifts me aboue the ground with cheatfull thoughts

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a second term, Obama will confront familiar headwinds”, in The New York Times‎:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

2. (intransitive) To make a prediction.
3. (transitive) To have a presentiment of; to feel beforehand; to foreknow.

Synonyms

• foreshadow
• forespell
• portend

Translations

Anagrams

• asperge, preages, sperage