different between intimation vs premonition

English

Etymology

From Middle French intimation, from Latin intimatio

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nt??me???n/
• Rhymes: -e???n

Noun

intimation (plural intimations)

1. The act of intimating.
2. The thing intimated.
3. Announcement; declaration.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

     They made an edict with an intimation that whosoever killed a stork, should be banished.

4. A hint; an obscure or indirect suggestion or notice; a remote or ambiguous reference.
   • 1862, Henry David Thoreau, Walking:

     At length, perchance, the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the American mind, and the intimations that star it as much brighter.

   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 378:

     And actually I had important intimations to communicate as he faced the end. But intimations weren't much use.

Translations

Related terms

• intimacy
• intimate

References

• “intimation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Alternative forms

• præmonition (archaic)

Etymology

Mid 15th century, from Anglo-Norman premunition, from Ecclesiastical Latin praemoniti?nem (“a forewarning”), form of praemoniti?, from Latin praemonitus, past participle of praemone?, from prae (“before”) (English pre-) + mone? (“to warn”) (from which English monitor).

Compare Germanic forewarning.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pr?m'?-, pr?'m?-n?sh??n
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

premonition (plural premonitions)

1. A clairvoyant or clairaudient experience, such as a dream, which resonates with some event in the future.

   Synonym: vision

2. A strong intuition that something is about to happen (usually something negative, but not exclusively).

   Synonyms: bad feeling, foreboding, gut feeling, hunch, (informal) second sight

Derived terms

• premonitory

Translations

References