precognition
(priːkɒgˈnɪʃən)
Also 7 præ-.
[ad. late L. præcogniti-ōnem, n. of action f. præcognōscĕre: see precognosce; or perh. a. obs. F. précognition foreknowledge (15th c. in Godef.).]
1. Antecedent cognition or knowledge; foreknowledge.
| 1611 Cotgr., Precognition, a precognition. a 1619 M. Fotherby Atheom. i. viii. §2 (1622) 56 This præcognition and anticipation of God. 1651 Biggs New Disp. §230 It acts without any precognition of an end. 1678 Gale Crt. Gentiles III. 67 God..by his determinate Counsel and precognition delivered his Son to them. 1839 Bailey Festus xi. (1852) 136 O Thou!..Whom all the faiths and creeds, and rites of old..In precognition of eternal truth Foreshadowed and foretyped. 1903 Myers Hum. Personality I. 31 Here again we find also precognitions which transcend what seems explicable by the foresight of every mind such as we know. 1955 Sci. Amer. Oct. 116/3 The entire experimental series seemed to offer proof of some form of telepathy: ‘pre-cognition’ or ‘post-cognition’. 1958, 1968 [see extra-sensory a.]. 1973 Psychol. Abstr. XLIX. 11/1 Telepathy and clairvoyance are seen as extensions of normal preceptual processes, precognition as the reverse of retrospective memory processes. |
2. Scots Law. The preliminary examination of witnesses or persons likely to know about the facts of a case, in order to obtain, with a view to trial, a general knowledge of the available evidence; esp. in criminal law, an examination by a procurator-fiscal of those who can give evidence regarding a crime or offence (in older practice conducted by or before a sheriff or other judge ordinary), in order to know whether there is ground for trial and to enable a relevant libel to be prepared; also the statement itself taken down from a witness before the trial.
| 1661 Sc. Acts Chas. II (1820) VII. 22/2 That the mater of fact cannot be so well cleired at a peremptorie dyet befor the Justice without ane precognition and previous tryell of the wholl circumstances of the same. 1720 Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 505 Several are taken up [= apprehended], and lawyers have taken a precognition. 1753 Stewart's Trial 33 We have gone thro' this libel with the greatest attention, and have taken a view of the several facts, which, after a precognition of above a thousand witnesses, are set forth to support the charge against the pannel. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth vii, The precognition of Simon Glover and Henry Gow would bear out a matter less worthy of belief. 1887 Law Times LXXXII. 175/1 Prisoners are not allowed to see the precognitions for the prosecution. |
So preˈcognitive a., of the nature of, or giving, foreknowledge.
| 1903 Myers Hum. Personality I. 142, I mean precognitive dreams;—pictures or visions in which future events are foretold or depicted. 1953 P. C. Berg Dict. New Words 127/1 Precognitive telepathy,..awareness by a precipient of images and ideas occurring at some future time in the mind of a subject or agent. 1974 Sci. Amer. June 118/2 One is more telepathic, more clairvoyant, more precognitive. 1975 Physics Bull. Mar. 125/2 The author has attempted to describe and briefly to discuss a number of cases claimed to show precognitive happenings. |