Soothsayer
/ˈsuːθˌseɪ.ər/noun
A person who claims to predict the future or divine hidden truths.
Did you know?The first element, sooth, is an Old English word for “truth,” so a soothsayer was originally someone who “said the truth,” not someone who just guessed the future.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*h₁es-
“to be, to exist, to be true”
Old English
OE
sōþ
“truth, reality, that which is true”
Old English
OE
sēgere
“speaker, one who says”
Middle English
ME
sothsaier
“one who says truth; a diviner or prophet”
Modern English
English
soothsayer
“a person who predicts the future or professes to reveal hidden knowledge”