Word of the Day

Saturday, January 15, 2000

portend

\por-TEND\ , verb;

To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshadow; to bode.

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Quotes:

Although no humans were there to witness the giant comet of 65 million years ago, in this case it really did portend disaster.

-- Walter Alvarez, T. Rex and the Crater of Doom

With mortal crisis doth portend
My days to appropinque an end.

-- Samuel Butler, Hudibras. Part i. Canto iii. Line 589 ,

I see five separate moving clouds of dust; they portend some sort of magic.

-- Laurie Fox, My Sister from the Black Lagoon: A Novel of My Life

Many signs portended a dark and stormy day.

-- Macaulay,

Origin:

Portend comes from Latin portendere, to indicate, to predict, from por- (variant of pro-), before + tendere, to stretch out, to spread. Thus that which portends is that which stretches out before us into the future.