| 释义 |
prescience|ˈpriːʃɪəns|
[a. F. prescience (13th c.), ad. late L. præscientia (Tertull.) foreknowledge: see prescient a. and -ence.]
Knowledge of events before they happen; foreknowledge. a. esp. as a divine attribute.
c1374Chaucer Troylus iv. 974 (998) They seyn right þus þat þyng is not to come For þat þe prescience hath seyghen by-fore. 1382Wyclif 1 Pet. i. 2 Up the prescience [gloss or bifore knowinge; Vulg. secundum præscientiam] of God, the fadir. c1491Chast. Goddes Chyld. 17 Thus it fareth by hem also that wyll ymagyne of predestynacyon and of the prescience or of the foreknowinge of god. 1532More Confut. Barnes viii. Wks. 787/1 Prescyence of God putteth no necessitie in thinges of their nature conuenient vnto free wyll of man. 1674Owen Holy Spirit (1693) 106 It is utterly inconsistent with his Prescience and Omniscience. 1791Boswell Johnson an. 1769 (1816) II. 100 Predestination, or what is equivalent to it, cannot be avoided, if we hold an universal prescience in the Deity. 1835I. Taylor Spir. Despot. vii. 331 If we attribute it to the divine prescience.
b. as a human faculty or quality: Foresight.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. x. (MS. Digby 230), Cassandra..in eche arte had experience Of þinges future fully prescience To telle aforn what that shal betide. 1530Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 962 O prudent prelatis, quhare was your presciance, That tuke on hand tyll obserue Chaistytie, But austeir lyfe, laubour, and abstenance? 1615G. Sandys Trav. 100 Nature hauing endued them with that wonderfull prescience, to auoide the inconueniences, and yet to enioy the benefit of the riuer. 1791Burke Let. to Memb. Nat. Assemb. Wks. VI. 54 Statesmen of a more judicious prescience, look for the fortunate moment too. 1856Kane Arct. Explor. II. iv. 55 Resources..contingent certainly, so far as our prescience goes.
c. With a and pl. An instance of this. rare—1.
a1763Shenstone Ess. (1765) 148 We..deny ourselves..natural gratifications, through speculative presciences and doubts about the future. |