visionary

English

Etymology

vision +‎ -ary

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvɪʒəˌnɛɹi/
• Hyphenation: vi‧sion‧ar‧y

Adjective

visionary (comparative more visionary, superlative most visionary)

1. Having vision or foresight.
   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Alexander Pope, page 163:

     No more theſe ſeenes my meditation aid, / Or lull to reſt the viſionary mind.

2. Imaginary or illusory.
   • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

     I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then,
     And donn’d a visionary crown—
     Yet it was not that Fantasy
     Had thrown her mantle over me—
     But that, among the rabble—men,
     Lion ambition is chain’d down— […]

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVII, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 291:

     To many, the visionary hope which is born of the imagination may seem the very mockery of nothing. We cannot imagine what we have never experienced.

   • 1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers:

     Here Mr. Jackson smiled once more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand, thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated taking a grinder.

3. Prophetic or revelatory.
   • 1727, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Works of James Thomson, page 69:

     Here frequent, at the viſionary hour, / When muſing midnight reigns or ſilent noon, / Angelic harps are in full concert heard, / And voiced chaunting from the wood-crown’d hill, / The deepening dale, or inmoſt ſilvan glade […]

4. Idealistic or utopian.

   a visionary scheme or project

   • c. 1712, Jonathan Swift, “A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue”, in The Works of J.S., volume I, Dublin: George Faulkner, published 1735, page 187:

     I confeſs, the Merit of this Candour and Condeſcenſion is very much leſſened ; becauſe your Lordſhip hardly leaves us Room to offer our good Wiſhes ; removing all our Difficulties, and ſupplying our Wants, faſter than the moſt viſionary Projector can adjuſt his Schemes.

Translations

Noun

visionary (plural visionaries)

1. Someone who has visions; a seer.
2. An impractical dreamer.
   • 1897, Charles Morris, A History of the United States of America: Its People, and Its Institutions, page 18:

     For seven years [Christopher Columbus] begged persistently for aid, but in vain. He was looked upon as a visionary, and the very boys in the street mocked him as a lunatic. At length he was permitted to lay his plans before a committee of learned men, but only to have them ridiculed, the council dismissing him as a foolish enthusiast.

   • 1918 January 3, Bertrand Russell, “The German Peace Offer”, in The Tribunal; republished as Autobiography, 1998, →ISBN, pages 308–9:

     In a military sense Russia is defenceless, and we all supposed it a proof that they were mere visionaries when they started negotiations by insisting upon not surrendering any Russian territory to the Germans.

   • 1968, Engineering News-Record‎, volume 181, page 112:

     Along with the good planners there are lots of wild-eyed visionaries who don’t relate ideas to real-life practicalities.

   • 1991, Noble E. Cunningham, Jr., “Jefferson, Thomas”, in Eric Foner, John A. Garraty, editors, The Reader’s Companion to American History, →ISBN, page 592:

     Jefferson’s intellectual prowess led some political opponents to dismiss him as a visionary, but he was remarkably successful in politics.

3. Someone who has creative and positive ideas about the future.
   • 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 51:

     Robertson was finally asked to step down at the end of 1961. His successor would be Dr Beeching, who was seen as both visionary and axeman.

Translations

References

• “visionary”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.