soothsayer

C2+ Topic:People & Society

US /ˈsuθseɪər/ UK /ˈsuːθseɪə/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a person who predicts the future; a seer

The soothsayer warned the king to beware the coming month.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person who predicts the... seer prophet oracle divinerfortune-telleraugurprognosticator

Word family

Related forms soothsaysooth

Etymology

A compound of sooth ('truth') + sayer ('one who says'), literally 'one who speaks truth'; from Old English sōth ('truth') + secgan ('to say'). Originally 'a truth-teller', later 'one who predicts the future'.

sōth Old English secgan Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# soothsayer

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈsuθseɪər/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈsuːθseɪə/

## Meanings
1. a person who predicts the future; a seer

## Examples
- The soothsayer warned the king to beware the coming month.

## Synonyms
- seer
- prophet
- oracle
- diviner
- fortune-teller
- augur
- prognosticator

## Related Forms
- soothsay
- sooth

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sōth
- Root: secgan

## Etymology
A compound of sooth ('truth') + sayer ('one who says'), literally 'one who speaks truth'; from Old English sōth ('truth') + secgan ('to say'). Originally 'a truth-teller', later 'one who predicts the future'.

## AI Etymology
Soothsayer is a compound of sooth ('truth') + sayer ('one who says'), literally 'one who speaks truth'; from Old English sōth ('truth') + secgan ('to say'). Originally 'a truth-teller', later 'one who predicts the future'. The historical chain includes Old English sōth and Old English secgan. Older glosses in the chain include "truth", "one who says", "one who speaks truth", and "to say", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, soothsayer is best read as compound and borrowing, yielding an English noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a noun, with the sense "a person who predicts the future; a seer". related forms include soothsay and sooth. The result is an English noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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