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soothsay
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Soothsay

Soothsay \Sooth"say`\, v. i. [Sooth + say; properly to say truth, tell the truth.] To foretell; to predict. ``You can not soothsay.''
--Shak. ``Old soothsaying Glaucus' spell.''
--Milton.

Soothsay

Soothsay \Sooth"say`\, n.

  1. A true saying; a proverb; a prophecy. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

  2. Omen; portent. Having

    God turn the same to good soothsay.
    --Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
soothsay

c.1600, back-formation from soothsayer. As a noun from 1540s.

Wiktionary
soothsay

n. 1 soothsaying; prediction; prognostication; prophecy. 2 A portent; an omen. vb. (context intransitive English) To foretell the future; make predictions.

Usage examples of "soothsay".

Socialism, soft drinks, soothsaying, sorcery, space travel, spectacles, spelling, sports, squirrels, steamboats, steel, stereopticans, the Stock Exchange, stomachs, stores, storms, stoves, streetcars, strikes, submarines, subways, suicide, sundials, sunstroke, superstition, surgery, surveying, sweat and syphilis!

For he so worded the oracle 154 that whether Pyrrhus was conquered by the Romans, or the Romans by Pyrrhus, the soothsaying god would securely await the issue.