prophesy

From Middle English prophecien; partly from prophecie, and partly from Middle French prophecier, prophesier, from prophecie (“prophecy”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒfɪsaɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑfɪsaɪ/

prophesy (third-person singular simple present prophesies, present participle prophesying, simple past and past participle prophesied)

1. To speak or write with divine inspiration; to act as prophet. [from 14th c.]
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Joel 2:28,

     And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Not every day fit for Verse” in Hesperides, London: John Williams & Francis Eglesfield, p. 285,

     ’Tis not ev’ry day, that I

     Fitted am to prophesie:

     No, but when the Spirit fils

     The fantastick Pannicles:

     Full of fier; then I write

     As the Godhead doth indite.

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Oxford: Heinemann, 1996, Part One, Chapter Eleven, p. 70,

     […] at that very moment a loud and high-pitched voice broke the outer silence of the night. It was Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, prophesying. There was nothing new in that. Once in a while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy.

2. To predict, to foretell (with or without divine inspiration). [from 14th c.]
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act V, Scene 1,

     Then I perceive that will be verified

     Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy

     ‘If once he come to be a cardinal,

     He’ll make his cap co-equal with the crown.’

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, 1 Kings 22:8,

     He doth not prophesy good concerning me.

   • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Chapter 5,

     People prophesied a long continuance to this already lengthened frost; said the spring would be very late; no spring fashions required; no summer clothing purchased for a short uncertain summer.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 745:

     ‘It has been prophesied more than once that he will find it.’

3. To foreshow; to herald; to prefigure.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act V, Scene 3,

     Methought thy very gait did prophesy

     A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.

4. (intransitive, Christianity) To speak out on the Bible as an expression of holy inspiration; to preach. [from 14th c.]
   • 1646, Jeremy Taylor, Of the Liberty of Prophesying, Section 4, in Treatises of 1. The liberty of prophesying, 2. Prayer ex tempore, 3. Episcopacie: together with a sermon, London: R. Royston, 1648, p. 73,

     […] if we consider that we have no certain wayes of determining places of difficulty and Question, infallibly and certainly […] we shall see a very great necessity in allowing a liberty in Prophesying without prescribing authoritatively to other mens consciences, and becomming Lords and Masters of their Faith.

• prophecy
• prophesier
• prophesize (nonstandard)
• prophet
• prophetic
• prophetize