oracular
English
WOTD – 28 October 2009
Etymology
From Middle French oraculaire
Pronunciation
Adjective
oracular
- Of or relating to an oracle.
- 1810, Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake
- In some of the Hebrides they attributed the same oracular power to a large black stone by the sea-shore, which they approached with certain solemnities, and considered the first fancy which came into their own minds, after they did so, to be the undoubted dictate of the tutelar deity of the stone, and, as such, to be, if possible, punctually complied with.
- 2006, Lisa Hill, The Passionate Society: the social, political and moral thought of Adam Ferguson
- Ferguson's sin consisted in his oracular 'unmasking' of a 'second-rate sort of society, full of second rate citizens, pursuing comparatively worthless objects.'
- 1810, Sir Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake
- Prophetic, foretelling the future.
- 1963, Ivo Andrić, Bosnian Chronicle, translated by Joseph Hitrec, New York: Arcade, 1993, Chapter 26, p. 402,
- It was one of those dire oracular pronouncements that Marko made from time to time, which were afterwards spread from mouth to mouth among the Serbs.
- 1963, Ivo Andrić, Bosnian Chronicle, translated by Joseph Hitrec, New York: Arcade, 1993, Chapter 26, p. 402,
- Wise, authoritative.
- 1844, William Makepeace Thackeray, Barry Lyndon
- My Lord Chatham, whose wisdom his party in those days used to call superhuman, raised his oracular voice in the House of Peers against the American contest;
- 1844, William Makepeace Thackeray, Barry Lyndon
- Ambiguous, hard to interpret.
- 1754, Horace Walpole, letter to John Chute
- Nothing offended me but that lisping Miss Haughton, whose every speech is inarticulately oracular.
- 1895, Andrew Dickson White, History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
- This utterance was admirably oracular, being susceptible of cogent quotation by both sides […]
- 1754, Horace Walpole, letter to John Chute
Related terms
Translations
of or relating to an oracle
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prophetic, foretelling the future
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ambiguous, hard to interpret
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Portuguese
Spanish
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