envisage

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1. Envisage is an early 19th century loanword from French, meaning at first 'to look in the face of' and then (its current meaning) 'to have a mental picture of (something yet to happen)'. Fowler (1926) dismissed it as an 'undesirable Gallicism' and recommended as alternatives the words face, confront, contemplate, recognize, realize, view, and regard. Gowers (1965) added imagine, intend, and visualize to the list of words for which envisage was 'a pretentious substitute'. None of these will always quite serve, however, and only some of them can be substituted for envisage in its common construction followed by a verbal noun (We do not envisage leaving just yet).

2. Neither Fowler not Gowers noticed the arrival, first in Britain (1921) and then more assertively in America, of the closely synonymous word envision, meaning 'to see or foresee as in a vision'. The evidence of current use shows that envision is strongly favoured in American English and envisage in British English, but the division is not absolute and envision is becoming more common in British English. Examples: (envisage)

The best scenario...that we can envisage is one in which all those who want to do formal work will have an opportunity of doing two or three days a week—Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1980

So mother envisaged us all here, gathered round staring down in this ghastly way—Penelope Lively, 1989

Smith does not envisage bringing in a replacement—Times, 2006

I did not envisage it would get as bad as this—Independent, 2006

(envision) His blackest hypochondria had never envisioned quite so miserable a Catastrophe—Lytton Strachey, 1921

They envision themselves wearing berets...and crawling about the rubble, throwing Molotov cocktails—Melody Maker, 1968

It may be only the stuff of newspaper editorials, of course, to envision a strategy in which the United Nations takes decisive action—Sunday Times, 1990

The Hubble was working as envisioned—weblog, Canadian English 2005.

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verb

To form mental images of: conceive, envision, fancy, fantasize, image, imagine, picture, see, think, vision, visualize. Informal feature. See thoughts.

IN BRIEF: To visualize.

The speaker tried to encourage the audience to envisage a softly gurgling brook as a way to begin the relaxation technique.

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For a list of words related to envisage, see:

• Verbs of Sight - envisage: visualize in a specific way
• Belief and Conception - envisage: have a mental picture of

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See words rhyming with "envisage."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Envisage.

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - forestille sig, forudse, se hen til, stå over for

Nederlands (Dutch)
zien als, voor zich zien, overwegen, onder ogen zien

Français (French)
v. tr. - prévoir, envisager

Deutsch (German)
v. - vorstellen, beabsichtigen

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - οραματίζομαι, φαντάζομαι

Italiano (Italian)
considerare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - imaginar, conjeturar

Русский (Russian)
предусматривать, намечать, предвидеть, представлять

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - prever, anticipar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - föreställa sig, betrakta, förutse

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
想像, 设想, 正视, 面对

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 想像, 設想, 正視, 面對

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 관찰하다, 직면하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 見る, 心に描く, 予見する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يتخيل, يتصور‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮צפה, חזה, ראה‬

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