presentiment meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

presentiment

noun

UK /prɪˈzɛn.tɪ.mənt/ · US /prɪˈzɛn.tɪ.mənt/

Etymology From French pressentiment, from Middle French, equivalent to pre- + sentiment.

A premonition; a feeling that something, often of undesirable nature, is going to happen.

A man, my good Sir, has seldom an offer of kindness to make to a woman, but she has a presentiment of it some moments before.1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC:
A thousand alarming presentiments of evil to her beloved Catherine from this terrific separation must oppress her heart with sadness, and drown her in tears for the last day or two of their being together; […]1803 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Northanger Abbey; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume I, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 13:

4 more examples

Oh, those women! They nurse and cuddle their presentiments, and make darlings of their ugliest thoughts, as they do of their deformed children.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 13, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
This unfortunate accident has upset me. I have a horrible presentiment that something of the kind may happen to me.1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
“No,” replied the girl, “it would not be strange, of course; but for some inexplicable reason I have one of those foolish feminine presentiments that all is not right with Mr. Caldwell. It is the strangest feeling—it is as though I knew that he was not on board the ship.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 106:
I had a presentiment that this would be my last journey to the Continent for many a long day to come; this, as events turned out, proved all too correct. [This was published posthumously, the author died on 19 November 1942.]1943 November and December, Chas. S. Lake, “Some Continental Travel Experiences (1922-1939)—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 355: