prescience
nounUK /ˈpɹɛsɪ.əns/ · US /ˈpɹɛʃəns/
Etymology Inherited from Middle English prescience, from Old French prescience, from Latin praescientia.
› Knowledge of events before they take place.
1
Especially, Usually Such knowledge that is supernatural or paranormal in nature, including the prediction of things that nobody could have known by the ordinary senses.
- God's certain prescience of the volitions of moral agents1754, Jonathan Edwards, An Inquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions Respecting that Freedom of the Will which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency:
- O thou, who thus the eye hast veil'd, The book of fate so slowly given, I thank thee, that thou hast conceal'd From man the prescience of heaven.1815, Lydia Sigourney, Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, On a Sleeping Infant, page 198:
2
Sometimes, Usually Such knowledge that comes from wise and thorough forethought (for example, careful planning).
- Near-synonym: forethought
- With prescience, the Barlows designed them to withstand a third more weight than they would be expected to bear in normal conditions - future proofing the bridge for the weight of trains we see using it today.2020 September 23, Paul Bigland, “The tragic tale of the Tay Bridge disaster”, in Rail, page 83:
- Related terms
- prescient, prescientific, protoscience, protoscientific