foresight

Etymology

It is formed from English fore- + sight,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first as inherited from Middle English forsight, also foresight.^[5][7][8] Barnhart suggests that it may come from the verb forsen (“to foresee”), and that it was probably modelled on Latin prōvidentia (“foresight”);^[8] Etymonline and Weekley also see the Latin word behind it.^[3][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford instead think it was probably suggested by Old Norse forsjá or forsjó.^[10][4] The OED compares Old High German forasiht and German Vorsicht (“attention, caution”).^[2][3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Divine foresight, providence: the first record is in the Cursor Mundi, composed about 1325 and quoted by the OED from a manuscript of before 1400.^[2][8] Weekley likewise notes that the earliest use, about 1300, is of God's foresight, rendering Latin prōvidentia.^[9] Etymonline gives early-14th-century senses "insight obtained beforehand" and "prudence".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense, God's providence, was used until 1664 and is now obsolete.^[2] The general senses grew in the 15th century: a view into the future (1422), care or provision for the future (1430, in Lydgate's Troy Book) and the faculty of foreseeing what must happen (before 1500, again in Lydgate).^[2] Chaucer used the word once, in Troilus and Criseyde.^[12][13] Spenser used it in 1591 for the literal act of looking forward.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave "prescience; prognostication; foreknowledge" and noted that the stress had once fallen on the second syllable, quoting Milton.^[14] Later technical senses are the front sight of a gun (1806, in the journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition) and, in surveying, a reading taken forward (1855, perhaps only American).^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – God's foresight, providence (obsolete by 1664).^[2][8]
• 1422 – a sight or view into the future.^[2]
• 1430 – care or provision for the future.^[2]
• before 1500 – the faculty of foreseeing what must happen.^[2]
• 1591 – the action of looking forward.^[2]
• 1806 – the front sight on a gun.^[2]
• 1855 – in surveying, a forward reading.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ability to see what will happen or be needed in the future, and to plan for it; prudence: They had the foresight to book the tickets early.^[10][5][15]
2. The act or power of foreseeing; foreknowledge or prescience.^[5][2]
3. The act of looking forward; a view forward.^[5][2]
4. The front sight of a gun, near the muzzle.^[5][10][2]
5. (surveying) A sight or reading taken forward, to find the height of a new point.^[5][10][2]
6. (obsolete) Divine providence.^[2][9]

Word family

• foresighted
• foresightedly
• foresightedness
• foresightful

Related words

• foresee
• forethought
• providence
• hindsight
• insight

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins