forescent meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

forescent

verb

/ˌfɔː(ɹ)ˈsɛnt/

Etymology From fore- + scent.

To detect the scent of (something) before it is present.

birds and wild animals forescent a storm, or an earthquake1849, John Griffith Mansford, Anno Mundi 1656, and Anno Domini 1849, London: Nisbet & Co., page 6:
[…] the white goose, The saviour of the Roman citadel, Forescents afar the odour of mankind.1916, Lucretius, translated by William Ellery Leonard, Of the Nature of Things, London: J.M. Dent, Book 4, pp. 160-161:

Figuratively To detect or become aware of (something) in advance.

1872, Henry Norman Hudson, Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, Boston: Ginn & Company, Othello, the Moor of Venice, p. 462, the sagacity with which Iago feels and forescents his way into Roderigo
1915, Frederick Goodyear, letter to F.W. Leith Ross in Letters and Remains: 1887-1917, London: McBride, Nast, 1920, p. 94, Possibly we instinctively forescented the war.

noun

/ˈfɔː(ɹ)ˌsɛnt/

Etymology From fore- + scent.

A scent that indicates something in advance.

an appalling forescent of his own near approaching discomfiture1832, [Isaac Taylor], “chapter 13”, in Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 229:
The patriarchs and prophets inhaled the sweet odour of Christ, Who was preordained to be born and to die in the flesh; yet they did not then give forth the same odour, because they could not exhibit in the flesh Him of Whom they had a fore-scent in the spirit.1920, anonymous translator, St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, Dublin: Browne & Nolan, Volume 2, Sermon 60, p. 190:

2 more examples

An allusion to the garlic breath of the groundlings provides a forescent of the evil smells that pervade the Genoan court.1986, Charles R. Forker, chapter 1, in Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, page 79:
She opened the door on the night and felt the sudden damp forescent of autumn brush past her.1998, Niall Williams, Four Letters of Love, New York: Warner Books, Part 7, Chapter 4, pp. 237-238: