vaticine means A prediction; a vaticination. It carries an Arena rating of 1600, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, vaticine ranks #1,792 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,978 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #4,480 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #4,846 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “vaticine” is a great word
A prophetic utterance, archaic and oracular, spoken from a source beyond reason. From the Latin vāticinium ("prediction, prophecy"), from vātēs ("seer, prophet"). Unlike a forecast, which implies a calculated projection from observable data, or an augury, which is divination drawn from specific omens, a vaticine is the unmediated declaration itself. It is the muttered verse in a smoky temple, the strange certainty that chills a sunlit room, the dream that arrives with the weight of a verdict—a quiet, terrible declaration from a realm where time has already happened.
Etymology
From Latin vāticinium (“prediction, prophecy”).
noun
- A prediction; a vaticination.e.g.“And thus (according to this vaticine) twise it was left, but the third time it shall be kept.” — 1587, Raphael Holinshed, Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, volume 3, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2011:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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