prophecy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English prophecie, also prophesie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French prophecie, also profecie and prophetie,^[5][2][3][6] and partly directly borrowed from Late Latin prophētīa,^[5][2][3] from Ancient Greek προφητεία (prophēteía, “gift of interpreting the will of the gods”),^[2][3][5] from προφήτης (prophḗtēs), prophet, and the suffix -ία (-ía).^[5][4][7] The Greek noun prophḗtēs is formed from πρό (pró, “before”) and the root of φημί (phēmí, “to speak”).^[3][8] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1119 according to the OED,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from the second quarter of the 12th century, both for a prediction and for a divinely inspired utterance.^[9] The OED thinks that the rare sense "a company of prophets" may have been formed independently in English from prophet.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

What a prophet does or says; divinely inspired utterance: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][2] Etymonline dates the word about 1200,^[3] and Barnhart probably before 1200.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the work of a prophet who speaks for God.^[5][3] By the late 13th century it also meant a single inspired text or utterance,^[5][3] and by about 1330, in Arthour and Merlin, the foretelling of future events in general, without any divine inspiration;^[5] Gower used it before 1393 for a sign that foreshadows something.^[5] In the Church it named a reading from the Old Testament prophets in the liturgy (about 1450),^[5][4] and in Reformation England a meeting for the exposition of Scripture (1577).^[5] Johnson (1755) gave only "a declaration of something to come; prediction".^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – divinely inspired utterance, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5]
• before 1325 – a single prophetic text or revelation.^[5]
• c. 1330 – a prediction of future events.^[5]
• c. 1350 – the verb prophesy.^[2]
• before 1393 – a sign that foreshadows something, in Gower.^[5]
• c. 1400 – a company of prophets (obsolete).^[5]
• 1577 – a meeting for the exposition of Scripture.^[5]
• after 1700 – the spellings prophecy for the noun and prophesy for the verb fully settle.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A message believed to come from God or a deity, spoken or written by a prophet.
2. A statement of what will happen in the future; a prediction: Her prophecy that the shop would fail came true.
3. The gift or activity of a prophet.

Related words

• prophesy
• prophet
• prophetic
• fame

Usage notes

In current spelling the noun is prophecy and the verb prophesy, but Barnhart notes that the two spellings were not fully kept apart until after 1700,^[2] and Merriam-Webster still records prophesy as a less common spelling of the noun.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.