soothsayer

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(sūth''ər) pronunciation
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 sōth 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 sōth, namely sōthian, "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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noun

    A person who foretells future events by or as if by supernatural means: augur, auspex, diviner, foreteller, haruspex, prophesier, prophet, prophetess, seer, sibyl, vaticinator. See foresight.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'soothsayer'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to soothsayer, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Soothsayer.
Translations:

Soothsayer

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - sandsiger, spåmand, spåkvinde

Nederlands (Dutch)
waarzegger, waarzegster

Français (French)
n. - devin

Deutsch (German)
n. - Wahrsager

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μάντης, προφήτης

Italiano (Italian)
indovino

Português (Portuguese)
n. - profeta (m), advinho (m)

Русский (Russian)
предсказатель, прорицатель, гадалка, ворожея

Español (Spanish)
n. - adivino, adivinador

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - siare, spåman, sierska, spåkvinna

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
预言者, 算命者, 占卜者

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 預言者, 算命者, 占卜者

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 예언자, 점쟁이, 사마귀

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 占い師, 予言者, 易者

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ألعراف, ألمتكهن‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מגיד עתידות‬


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Tiresias (blind soothsayer of Thebes)
Proffitt (family name)