‖ prognosis
(prɒgˈnəʊsɪs)
Pl. -oses (-ˈəʊsiːz).
[L. prognōsis, a. Gr. πρόγνωσις a recognizing beforehand, foreknowledge, in medicine a prognosis, f. προγιγνώσκειν to know beforehand: see pro-2 and gnosis. In F. prognose.]
1. Med. A forecast of the probable course and termination of a case of disease; also, the action or art of making such a forecast.
| 1655 Culpepper Riverius i. i. 3 As to the Prognosis, or Prognostical part concerning this Distemper: It is hard to cure. 1741 Monro Anat. (ed. 3) 174 There will be little Difficulty in forming a just Prognosis of our Patient's Disease. 1805 Med. Jrnl. XIV. 397, I had arrived to that certainty of prognosis, that I could have insured the life of an individual by the treatment I recommended, and his death by any other. 1881 Huxley in Nature 11 Aug. 343/1 Pathology..was merely natural history; it registered the phenomena of disease, classified them, and ventured upon a prognosis, wherever the observation of constant co-existences and sequences, suggested a rational expectation of the like recurrence under similar circumstances. |
¶ b. A symptom: = prognostic n.1 3. Obs.
| 1706 Phillips (Kersey), Prognosis..in the Art of Physick, it is the same as Prognostick Sign. |
2. gen. Prognostication, anticipation.
| 1706 Phillips (Kersey), Prognosis, a knowing before, Fore⁓boding, Fore-knowledge. 1872 B. Harte Heiress of Red Dog (1879) 54 It is one of the evidences of original characters that it is apt to baffle all prognosis from a mere observer's standpoint. 1894 Edin. Rev. July 33 It is..too soon to attempt a prognosis of English culture. |