Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Portend

Portend \por-TEND\ , verb;
1. To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshadow; to bode

This word dates to the early 15th century from Latin portendere, which means "foretell," but its original meaning was "to stretch forward" from por- + tendere ("forth, forward" + "to stretch, extend").

I always like the word bode, so I went ahead and looked that up too. It comes from Old English bodian ("proclaim, announce, foretell") from boda ("messenger"). It probably comes from Proto-Germanic *budon-, which derives from Proto-Indo-European *bheudh- ("be aware, make aware"), which is also the forebear of bid.

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