prospect

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the possibility of future success

   Their prospects as a writer are excellent.

2. 2
   verb

   search for something desirable

   prospect a job

3. 3
   noun

   The region which the eye overlooks at one time; view; scene; outlook.

   As when a Scout[…]Obtains the brow of ſome high-climbing Hill, / Which to his eye diſcovers unaware / The goodly proſpect of ſome forein land / Firſt-ſeen, or ſome renownd Metropolis / With gliſtering Spires and Pinnacles adornd, / Which now the Riſing Sun guilds with his beams.

4. 4
   noun

   A picturesque or panoramic view; a landscape; hence, a sketch of a landscape.

   I went to Putney, and other places on the Thames, to take prospects in crayon, to carry into France, where I thought to have them engraved.

5. 5
   noun

   A position affording a fine view; a lookout.

   Him God beholding from his proſpect high, / Wherein paſt, preſent, future he beholds, / Thus to his onely Son forſeeing ſpake.

6. 6
   noun

   Relative position of the front of a building or other structure; face; relative aspect.

   Their prospect was toward the south.

7. 7
   noun

   The act of looking forward; foresight; anticipation.

   a very ill prospect of a future state

8. 8
   noun

   The potential things that may come to pass, often favorable.

   The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,— no prospect of an end.

Etymology

From Middle English prospecte, from Latin prōspectus (“view, sight, prospect; panorama”), from prōspiciō (“to look forward”) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns), from pro (“before, forward”) + speciō, spiciō (“to look, to see”). By surface analysis, pro- + -spect. Doublet of prospectus and prospekt. The verb is from the noun.