Word of the Day!

presage [noun pres-ij; verb pres-ij, pri-seyj]
1 adjective:
1a Be a sign or warning of (an imminent event, typically an unwelcome one)
1b (archaic, of a person) predict
2 noun:
2a An omen or portent; warning or indication of the future
2b (archaic) A feeling of presentiment or foreboding

Examples:

In the Optimist production, this number is sung twice; its first appearance comes at the top of the show and is rendered by Hero, who unwittingly presages the way she herself will later be undone by Claudio. (Mike Fischer, Much Ado About Nothing leans hard on gags Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2017)

Rather than zoom in on a single disorienting upheaval in a character’s life, the novel endeavors to show how, these days, every aspect of everyone’s life feels threatened, and how every decision seems to presage a duel between individual survival and collective action. (Lauren Oyler, Are Novels Trapped by the Present?The New Yorker, 2020)

These stamps are not a response to recent events, but a presage - Toguo has been exploring these ideas for years. As early as the mid-1990s, he was working on a series of confrontational performances entitled Transit. (Dale Berning Sawa, Unfamiliar territory: artists navigate the complexities of the refugee crisis The Guardian, 2017)

In their eyes it was blood, and a presage of dreadful slaughter. (Emily Sarah Holt, Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian Persecutio)

But your face to-night is like a presage of calamity, like the dull, livid sky that goes before a thunderstorm. (M E Braddon, Phantom Fortune)

Origin:

Late Middle English (as a noun): via French from Latin praesagium, from praesagire 'forebode', from prae 'before' + sagire 'perceive keenly'. (Oxford English Dictionary)

The verb presage was predated by a noun presage, meaning 'omen.' Both forms derive from the Latin prefix prae- combined with the adjective sagus, meaning 'prophetic.' Foretell, predict, forecast, prophesy, and presage all mean 'to tell beforehand.' Foretell applies to telling of a future event by any procedure or any source of information ('seers foretold the calamity'). Predict commonly implies inference from facts or accepted laws of nature ('astronomers predicted an eclipse'). Forecast implies anticipating eventualities and is usually concerned with probabilities ('to forecast snow'). Prophesy connotes inspired or mystic knowledge of the future ('prophesying a new messiah'). Presage may apply to suggesting a coming event or indicating its likelihood. (Merriam-Webster)

egregious [ih-gree-juh s, -jee-uh s ]
adjective:

1 outstandingly bad; shocking, conspicuously bad, flagrant

2 (archaic) remarkably good,

Examples:

In one particularly egregious example about midway through, Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio actually climbs atop a bar and launches into an extended explanation of the film’s plot. (Mike Scott, ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ movie review: Fun, but far from perfect, nola.com)

By Hugo's brother I will be tried on no charge; seeing that he is, was, and ever will be - in charity I speak it - an egregious fool. (Anon, Three Courses and a Dessert)

Above all, we cannot play ducks and drakes with a native battery of idioms which prescribes egregious collocations of vocables as the Basic put up with for tolerate, or put at a loss for bewilder. (Professor Lancelot Hogben Interglossia, quoted by George Orwell, Politics and the English Language)

Origin:

Mid 16th century (in sense 2)): from Latin egregius 'illustrious', literally 'standing out from the flock', from ex- 'out' + grex, greg- 'flock'. Sense 1 (late 16th century) probably arose as an ironic use (Oxford English Dictionary)

Egregious derives from the Latin word egregius, meaning 'distinguished' or 'eminent'. In its earliest English uses, egregious was a compliment to someone who had a remarkably good quality that placed him or her eminently above others. That's how English philosopher and theorist Thomas Hobbes used it in flattering a colleague when he remarked, "I am not so egregious a mathematician as you are." Since Hobbes' day, however, the meaning of the word has become noticeably less complimentary, possibly as a result of ironic use of its original sensse. (Merriam-Webster)