Etymologically
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prognosis

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /pɹɒɡˈnəʊsɪs/, /pɹɒɡˈnəʊsiːz/[1]
  • US: /pɹɑɡˈnoʊsɪs/, /pɹɑɡˈnoʊsiz/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin prognōsis (“foreknowledge, prediction”),[2][3][4][5][6][7] from Ancient Greek πρόγνωσις (prógnōsis, “foreknowledge; in medicine, a prognosis”),[2][3][8][7] formed from προ- (pro-, “before”) and γνῶσις (gnôsis, “knowledge”) (see gnosis), after προγιγνώσκειν (progignṓskein, “to know beforehand”),[2][8][4] whose base is γιγνώσκειν (gignṓskein, “to know”),[8][4] from Proto-Indo-European *gno- (“to know”), the root of know.[3][7] The Latin word meant "foreknowledge" from the 4th century and was a medical term from the 5th.[2] Compare Middle French prognosie (“forecast”) (1598) and French prognose (1670).[2] An earlier English word in the same sense was pronostike, from Medieval Latin pronosticum, the ancestor of prognostic.[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A prediction or forecast of the course of events: 1649, in J. Harrison's Nahash Redivivus; the medical sense, a forecast of the course of a disease, follows in 1650.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the medical sense to 1655 and Etymonline to the 1650s,[5][7][3] and Barnhart and Etymonline place the general sense only in 1706, in Kersey's edition of Phillips's dictionary.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Greek, πρόγνωσις was already a medical term as well as a word for foreknowledge in general, and English took over both uses within a year of each other in the mid-17th century.[2][3] The medical sense has remained the main one: a forecast of the likely course and outcome of a disease, and by extension the patient's chances of recovery.[2][7][10] A rare sense, a symptom on which such a forecast is based, is recorded only in 1706.[2] The verb prognose was back-formed from the noun by 1837; the older verb was Middle English pronostiken, the ancestor of prognosticate.[3]

Timeline

  • 1649 – a prediction, a forecast of events.[2]
  • 1650 – a forecast of the course and outcome of a disease.[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date it 1655.[5][7]
  • 1706 – a symptom on which a prognosis is based (obsolete).[2]
  • 1837 – the back-formed verb prognose.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (medicine) A forecast of the likely course and outcome of a disease or disorder.[10][7][2]
  2. The chances of recovery from a disease: After the operation her prognosis was excellent.[10][7]
  3. Any forecast or prediction.[10][2]

Word family

  • prognose

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins