prognosticate

From Medieval Latin prognosticare; see prognostic for more.

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• IPA^(key): /pɹɒɡˈnɒstɪke͡ɪt/

prognosticate (third-person singular simple present prognosticates, present participle prognosticating, simple past and past participle prognosticated)

1. (transitive) To predict or forecast, especially through the application of skill.

   Examining the tea-leaves, she prognosticated dark days ahead.

   • 1598 — William Shakespeare, Sonnet xiv

     But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
     And constant stars in them I read such art
     As 'Truth and beauty shall together thrive,
     If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert';
     Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
     'Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.'

   • 1845 October – 1846 June​, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights: A Novel, volume VII, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, […], published December 1847, OCLC 156123328:

     ...to-morrow I intend lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least.

   • 1915 — Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out ch. 2

     All old people and many sick people were drawn, were it only for a foot or two, into the open air, and prognosticated pleasant things about the course of the world.

2. (transitive) To presage, betoken.

   The bluebells may prognosticate an early spring this year.

• presage, prophesy, foretell

• prognosis
• prognostication

prognosticate

1. second-person plural present indicative of prognosticare
2. second-person plural imperative of prognosticare
3. feminine plural of prognosticato