soothsayer

sooth·say·er  (sthsr)

n.

One who claims to be able to foretell events or predict the future; a seer.

Word History: The truth is not always soothing, but our verb soothe is related to soothsayer, the word for one who tells the truth, especially beforehand. The archaic adjective and noun sooth, "true, truth," comes from the Old English adjective and noun sth with the same meanings. The Old English form derives from Germanic *santh-az, "true," which comes from Indo-European *sont-, one of the participles from the Indo-European root -es-, "to be": the truth is that which is. Old English also formed a verb from sth, namely sthian, "to confirm to be true." This is the ancestor of soothe; its meaning changed from "to assent to be true, say 'yes' to" to "humor by assenting, placate." Doing the latter on occasion requires something less than the truth.

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soothsayer [ˈsuːθˌseɪə]

n

(Spirituality, New Age, Astrology & Self-help / Alternative Belief Systems) a seer or prophet

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

soothsayer - someone who makes predictions of the future (usually on the basis of special knowledge) forecaster, predictor, prognosticator astrologer, astrologist - someone who predicts the future by the positions of the planets and sun and Moon fortune teller, fortuneteller - a person who foretells your personal future illusionist, seer, visionary - a person with unusual powers of foresight

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soothsayer

noun prophet, diviner, oracle, fortune-teller, forecaster, Cassandra, seer, clairvoyant, augur, sibyl, prognosticator, prophesier You don't have to be a soothsayer to predict his likely tactics.

Translations

soothsayer [ˈsuːθˌseɪəʳ] N → adivino/a m/f

soothsayer

n (old) → Wahrsager(in) m(f)