different between prognosticate vs guess

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin prognosticare; see prognostic for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p????n?st?ke?t/

Verb

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.'

   • ...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.

Synonyms

• presage, prophesy, foretell

Related terms

• prognosis
• prognostication

Translations

Italian

Verb

prognosticate

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

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: g?s, IPA^(key): /??s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

From Middle English gessen, probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Danish getse, gitse, getsa (“to guess”), from Old Norse *getsa, *gitsa, from Proto-Germanic *gitis?n? (“to guess”), from Proto-Germanic *getan? (“to get”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?ed- (“to take, seize”). Cognate with Danish gisse (“to guess”), Norwegian gissa, gjette (“to guess”), Swedish gissa (“to guess”), Saterland Frisian gisje (“to guess”), Dutch gissen (“to guess”), Low German gissen (“to guess”). Related also to Icelandic giska ("to guess"; from Proto-Germanic *gitisk?n?). Compare also Russian ??????? (gadát?, “to conjecture, guess, divine”), Albanian gjëzë (“riddle”) from gjej (“find, recover, obtain”). More at get.

Verb

guess (third-person singular simple present guesses, present participle guessing, simple past and past participle guessed)

1. To reach a partly (or totally) unqualified conclusion.
2. To solve by a correct conjecture; to conjecture rightly.

3. (chiefly US) to suppose (introducing a proposition of uncertain plausibility).
   • 1714, Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace

     But in known images of life I guess / The labour greater.
4. (colloquial) To think, conclude, or decide (without a connotation of uncertainty). Usually in first person: "I guess".

5. (obsolete) To hit upon or reproduce by memory.

Synonyms

• hypothesize
• take a stab
• speculate
• assume

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English gesse. Cognate with Dutch gis (“a guess”).

Noun

guess (plural guesses)

1. A prediction about the outcome of something, typically made without factual evidence or support.

   Synonyms: estimate, hypothesis, prediction

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• guess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• guess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Guses