presage

From Middle French presage, from Latin praesāgium.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛsɪdʒ/, /pɹɪˈseɪdʒ/
• Rhymes: -eɪdʒ
• Hyphenation: pre‧sage

presage (plural presages)

1. A warning of a future event; an omen.
2. An intuition of a future event; a presentiment.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXII:

     Glad was I when I reached the other bank. / Now for a better country. Vain presage!

presage (third-person singular simple present presages, present participle presaging, simple past and past participle presaged)

1. (transitive) To predict or foretell something.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     , scene i (Q2 version):

     If I may truſt the flattering truth of ſleepe, / My dreames preſage ſome ioyfull newes at hand : / My boſomes L. ſits lightly in his throne : / And all this day an vnaccuſtom’d ſpirit, / Lifts me aboue the ground with cheatfull thoughts […]

   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a second term, Obama will confront familiar headwinds”, in The New York Times‎:

     That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past.

2. (intransitive) To make a prediction.
3. (transitive) To have a presentiment of; to feel beforehand; to foreknow.

• foreshadow
• forespell
• portend

• asperge, preages, sperage