Literary notes about Prognosticate (AI summary)
The term "prognosticate" has been employed in literature to convey not only the act of forecasting future events but also to imbue statements with irony and nuanced emotion. In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s works, for example, the word surfaces repeatedly to question the nature of predictions—whether they signal genuine hope for peace or serve as a subtle ridicule towards personal misfortune ([1], [2], [3]). François Rabelais uses it in Gargantua and Pantagruel to denote both a literal and confident foretelling of battle outcomes and the lighthearted assurance against melancholy ([4], [5]). The term is also wielded with a touch of satire in John Arbuthnot’s and Charles Mackay’s narratives, where it underscores an almost absurd certitude in the fate of a scoundrel gaining a principality or even in the whimsical association of fruit with pleasant company ([6], [7]). Moreover, authors like Emily Brontë and George Eliot extend its usage to predict personal states—ranging from minor ailments to the ultimate fate of death—thus highlighting its versatility as a literary tool for both serious prognostications and ironic commentary ([8], [9]).
- Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?"
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?”
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Is this to prognosticate peace, or to mock at my unhappiness?”
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - You take it rightly, said Pantagruel, and it pleaseth me to see you foresee and prognosticate our victory by the names of our colonels.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - I may safely with the little skill I have, quoth Pantagruel, prognosticate that by the way we shall engender no melancholy.
— from Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais - By the same art he would prognosticate a principality to a scoundrel.
— from The History of John Bull by John Arbuthnot - Quinces prognosticate pleasant company.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - I prognosticate for myself an obstinate cold, at least.’
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - You will believe my prognostications another time, though I daresay I shan't live to prognosticate anything but my own death.”
— from Adam Bede by George Eliot