predicate

Grammar. (in many languages, as English) a syntactic unit that functions as one of the two main constituents of a simple sentence, the other being the subject, and that consists of a verb, which in English may agree with the subject in number, and of all the words governed by the verb or modifying it, the whole often expressing the action performed by or the state attributed to the subject, as is here in Larry is here.

Logic. that which is affirmed or denied concerning the subject of a proposition.

Origin:
1400–50; (noun) late Middle English (< Middle French predicat) < Medieval Latin praedicātum, noun use of neuter of Latin praedicātus, past participle of praedicāre to declare publicly, assert, equivalent to prae- pre- + dicā(re) to show, indicate, make known + -tus past participle suffix; (v. and adj.) < Latin praedicātus; cf. preach

Related forms

pred·i·ca·tion, noun

pred·i·ca·tion·al, adjective

pred·i·ca·tive

[pred-i-key-tiv, -kuh-; British pri-dik-uh-tiv] , adjective

pred·i·ca·tive·ly, adverb

non·pred·i·ca·tive, adjective

non·pred·i·ca·tive·ly, adverb

sub·pred·i·cate, noun

sub·pred·i·ca·tion, noun

sub·pred·i·ca·tive, adjective

un·pred·i·cat·ed, adjective

un·pred·i·ca·tive, adjective

un·pred·i·ca·tive·ly, adverb

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins

World English Dictionary

predicate

—vb (foll by on or upon)
1.	(also intr; when tr, may take a clause as object) to proclaim, declare, or affirm
2.	to imply or connote
3.	to base or found (a proposition, argument, etc)
4.	logic
	a. to assert or affirm (a property, characteristic, or condition) of the subject of a proposition
	b. to make (a term, expression, etc) the predicate of a proposition

—n
5.	grammar
	a. the part of a sentence in which something is asserted or denied of the subject of a sentence; one of the two major components of a sentence, the other being the subject
	b. (as modifier): a predicate adjective
6.	logic
	a. an expression that is derived from a sentence by the deletion of a name
	b. a property, characteristic, or attribute that may be affirmed or denied of something. The categorial statement all men are mortal relates two predicates, is a man and is mortal
	c. the term of a categorial proposition that is affirmed or denied of its subject. In this example all men is the subject, and mortal is the predicate
	d. a function from individuals to truth values, the truth set of the function being the extension of the predicate

—*adj*
7.	of or relating to something that has been predicated

[C16: from Latin praedicāre to assert publicly, from prae in front, in public + dīcere to say]

predi'cation

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

predicate

1532, a term in logic, from L. prædicatum "that which is said of the subject," prop. neut. pp. of prædicare "assert, proclaim, declare publicly," from præ- "forth, before" + dicare "proclaim," from stem of dicere "to speak, to say" (see diction). Grammatical

sense is from 1638. Phrase predicated on "founded on, based on," is Amer.Eng., first recorded 1766.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

predicate [(pred-i-kuht)]

The part of a sentence that shows what is being said about the subject. The predicate includes the main verb and all its modifiers. In the following sentence, the italicized portion is the predicate: “Olga's dog was the ugliest creature on four legs.”

Example sentences

Simply put, the met office can predicate weather two month from now no better than historical data.

Ultimately, what is formally interesting-about these fictions is the relationship they predicate between reader and text.

No one can predicate our longevity.It is better ignorant about our progenitor than knowing and making himself miserable.

In other words, seeing others as more like oneself is a kind of predicate for

behavior that is considerate and inclusive.

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Matching Quote

"We men know very little a priori, and have our senses to thank for nearly all our knowledge. Through experience we know only appearances ..., but not the modum noumenon ..., not things as they are in themselves.... God knows all things as they are in themselves a priori and immediately through an intuitive understanding.... If we were to flatter ourselves so much as to claim that we know the modum noumenon, then we would have to be in community with God so as to participate immediately in the divine ideas. To expect this in the present life is the business of mystics and theosophists. Thus arises the mystical self- annihilation of China, Tibet, and India, in which one is under the delusion that he will finally be dissolved in the Godhead. Fundamentally Spinozism could just as well be called a great fanaticism as a form of atheism. For of God, the one substance, Spinoza affirms two predicates: extension and thought. Every soul, he says, is only a modification of God's thought, and every body is a modification of his extension. Thus Spinoza assumed that everything existing could be found in God. But by making this assumption he fell into crude contradictions. For if only a single substance exists, then either I must be this substance, and consequently I must be God (but this contradicts my dependency); or else I am an accident (but this contradicts the concept of my ego, in which I think myself as an ultimate subject which is not the predicate of any other being)."

-Immanuel Kant