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Forebode vs Foreshow - What's the difference?

forebode | foreshow | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between forebode and foreshow

is that forebode is prognostication; presage while foreshow is a manifestation in advance; a prior indication.

forebode

English

Alternative forms

* forbode (much less commonly used)

Verb

(forebod)
  • To predict a future event; to hint at something that will happen (especially as a literary device).
  • * (Nathaniel Hawthorne), The Scarlet Letter
    • There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart.
  • To be prescient of (some ill or misfortune); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly.
  • * Tennyson
    • His heart forebodes a mystery.
  • * Middleton
    • Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Caesar's death.
  • * H. James
    • I have a sort of foreboding about him.

    Noun

  • (obsolete) prognostication; presage

    • See also

    * bode

    foreshow

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) foreschewen, from (etyl) . Cognate with (etyl) voorschouwen, (etyl) vorschauen.

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

  • (archaic) To show in advance; to foretell, predict.
  • (obsolete) To foreshadow or prefigure.
  • *1841 , Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu, The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England :
    • But if the rays break forth out of the middle, or dispersed, and its exterior body, or the out parts of it, be covered with clouds, it foreshows great tempests both of wind and rain.

    Etymology 2

    From .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A manifestation in advance; a prior indication.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.139:
    • The fore-shew of their inclination whilest they are young is so uncertaine.