Etymologically
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visionary

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈvɪʒn̩(ə)ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈvɪʒəˌnɛɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English vision + -ary,[2][3][4][5] and the OED compares French visionnaire, Italian visionario and Spanish visionario.[2] Johnson derived it from the French word.[6] Vision is from Anglo-Norman visioun, vision, from Latin vīsiō (“act of seeing, sight, thing seen”), from videō (“to see”), from Proto-Indo-European *weid- (“to see”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a vision, seen or grasped in a vision: 1648, in Robert Boyle's Seraphic Love.[2][7] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1640s.[3]

Semantic evolution

Within a few years the adjective was also used of people able to see visions, in Hobbes's Leviathan (1651).[2][3] From there it moved toward the unreal: seen only in a vision, phantom (1697, in Dryden's Virgil),[2] and of people, given to fanciful and impractical views, in Swift (1712).[2] Swift's Modest Proposal (1729) has it of schemes that cannot be carried out,[2] and Etymonline dates "apt to act on visions as if realities" to 1727.[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "affected by phantoms" and "imaginary; not real".[6] The noun followed about 1700, both for a person who has visions and for one who indulges in impractical fantasies;[3] the OED dates the first to 1706 and the second to before 1719, in Addison.[2] The favourable sense, far-sighted and full of foresight, was a transferred use of "able to see visions" for both adjective and noun,[4] and modern dictionaries put it first.[8][9]

Timeline

  • 1648 – of the nature of a vision.[2][7]
  • 1651 – able to see visions, in Hobbes.[2]
  • 1697 – seen only in a vision; unreal, phantom.[2]
  • 1706 – noun, one who has visions.[2]
  • 1712 – given to fanciful and impractical views.[2]
  • before 1719 – noun, one who indulges in fantastic schemes.[2]
  • 1729 – of schemes, impossible to carry out.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having or showing foresight and bold, imaginative ideas about the future: a visionary architect.[8][9][4]
  2. Given to seeing visions, prophecies or revelations.[8][7][2]
  3. Of plans or ideas: idealistic but impossible to carry out; utopian.[8][9][2]
  4. Existing only in the imagination; illusory or unreal.[8][2]
  5. Of, like, or seen in a vision.[9][2]

Noun

  1. A person with foresight and original ideas about the future: The company was founded by a visionary who saw the value of solar power.[4][9]
  2. A person who sees visions; a seer or prophet.[7][2][4]
  3. A person who indulges in impractical schemes or fancies; a dreamer.[7][2][4]

Word family

  • visionariness
  • nonvisionary
  • unvisionary

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 t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins