▪ I. predestinate, ppl. a. and n.
(prɪˈdɛstɪnət)
[ad. L. prædestināt-us, pa. pple.: see next.]
A. ppl. a. (as adj. or pple.) Predestined. arch.
1. Theol. Foreordained by the eternal purpose or decree of God: a. to salvation or eternal life.
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 426 If þo pope asked me wheþer I were ordeyned to be saved, or predestynate, I wolde sey þat I hoped so. c 1535 M. Nisbet New Test. in Scots (S.T.S.) III. 341 To searse the boddumless secrettis of Godis predestinatiounn, quhiddir thai be predestynate or nocht. 1684 Contempl. St. Man i. xi. (1699) 125 The Reprobates being then in the Valley of Jehosaphat, and the predestinate in the Air. 1833 J. Waterworth tr. Veron's Rule Cath. Faith 144 Can the predestinate be lost, or the reprobate saved? |
b. to any specified fate or lot in this life or after death; also of things: Foreordained by divine decree. Const. to, or inf. with to.
| 1382 Wyclif Rom. i. 4 The which is predestynat [gloss or bifore ordeyned bi grace] the sone of God in vertu. 1433 Lydg. St. Fremund 618 This blissid martir..Afforn predestynat to liff that is eterne. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 180 She that was predestynate to be the mother of God. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb) 17 Bi Gods predestinat order. 1649 A. Ross Alcoran 41 In a time prescribed and predestinate. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. iii. 1044 The precious something at perdition's edge He only was predestinate to save. |
2. In lighter or more general sense: Destined beforehand; fated.
| c 1500 H. Medwall Nature (Brandl) 869 He ys predestynate to be a prynces pere. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 136 So some Gentleman or other shall scape a predestinate scratcht face. 1706 Maule Hist. Picts in Misc. Scot. I. 40 Empires and monarchies cannot excape their predestinate ruines and fatal subversions. 1882 Swinburne Tristram of Lyon. vi. 109 The great good wizard, well beloved and well Predestinate of heaven. 1896 Sir T. Martin æneid ii. 81 There happy days, a realm, and royal bride Predestinate await thee. |
B. n. Theol. A person predestinated to eternal life; one of the elect.
| 1529 More Dyaloge ii. Wks. 181/2 Yet may it be that there bee none other in it than predestinates. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 92 These Anabaptisticall heretickes, how boldly they dare censure of all others, and auouch themselues predestinates. 1905 G. G. Coulton in Contemp. Rev. Aug. 222 He [Newman] would have found himself in far closer and more inevitable contact with these self-elected Predestinates. |
▪ II. predestinate, v.
(prɪˈdɛstɪneɪt)
[f. L. prædestināt-, ppl. stem of prædestināre, in cl. L. ‘to appoint or resolve upon beforehand’ (prædestināre triumphos, Livy); in Chr. L. from 4th c. (Lucifer of Cagliari a 370, Ambrosiaster, Vulgate (of the Epistles) c 384, Augustine c 418), rendering Gr. προορίζειν ‘to determine beforehand’ (Rom. viii. 29, 30); f. L. præ, pre- A. 1 + destināre to make fast, establish, determine, appoint: see destine v. In English the verb was first predestine (q.v.); predestinat, -ate was at first pa. pple. (= L. prædestinātus) and ppl. adj., later also pa. tense, but became c 1550 the form of the finite vb. = predestine v. Cf. prec. and -ate3.]
1. Theol. Of God: To foreordain by a divine decree or purpose: a. to salvation or eternal life; to elect.
| c 1450 tr. De Imitatione iii. lxiii. 146, I preuentyed hem in blessinges of swetnes. I predestinate hem before worldes. 1530 Palsgr. 664/2 He that is predestynate is written in the boke of lyfe. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) Rom. viii. 30 And whom he hath predestinated: them also he hath called. [Wycl. bifor ordeyned: Tindale, Cranmer, Geneva, ordeyned before..appoynted before: 1611 did predestinate: R.V. foreordained.] 1704 Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 139/1 Gentiles, whom he had predestinated by the means of the Gospel. |
b. to any fate or lot in this life or after death (including to elect and to reprobate); to foreordain everything that comes to pass. Const. to, or inf. with to.
(But many who hold the Augustinian, Thomist, or Calvinistic doctrine of God's foreordination of all things have objected to or shrunk from the use of predestinate and predestination in reference to final reprobation. Even the Westminster Confession does not so use it: see quot. 1647.)
| a 1450 Alexander 2745 (Dublin MS.) Yff I kyd þaim ony curtasy, it Come of my-seluen..Na we pride vs for no prowez predestinate [Ashm. MS. predestayned] vs here. 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xx, Whom god..had predestinate to be a great kyng. c 1560 Petition in Strype Ann. Ref. (1709) I. xxviii. 294 That God doth foreknow and predestinate all good and goodness, but doth only foreknow, and not predestinate, any evil. 1647 Westminster Confession iii. §§3–4 By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained [etc.]. a 1683 Oldham Poet. Wks. (1686) 44 Make Fate hang on his Lips, nor Heaven have Pow'r to Predestinate without his leave. 1849 Robertson Serm. Ser. i. ii. (1866) 20 God does not predestinate men to fail. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost i. 10 He predestinated them, first to grace in this world, and..to glory in the world to come. 1887 G. Salmon in Dict. Chr. Biog. III. 449/2 These..taught that certain were by God's foreknowledge so predestinated to death that neither Christ's passion nor baptism..could help them. 1888 Bp. Gore R.C. Claims i. (1905) 3 note, Be logical,..said the Calvinist: God predestinates, and therefore man has not free will. 1901 B. J. Kidd 39 Articles II. ii. xvii. 155 [Art. xvii] declines to be committed to the doctrine of Reprobation, according to which all who are not predestinated to eternal life were held to be predestinated to eternal death. |
2. To destine (as by fate); to fix beforehand by human (or animal) determination: = predestine 1 b.
| 1593 R. Harvey Philad. 32 Infinite be that time, which is predestinated for the name of Brute and his Brutans. 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 14 Not a few are predestinated thither [to the church] by their friends, from the foresight of a good benefice. 1730 Young Paraphr. Job 228 And with a glance predestinates her prey. a 1845 Hood Desert-Born iii, Predestinated (so I felt) for ever to her service. |
Hence preˈdestinated ppl. a., preˈdestinating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1593 Tell-Trothe's N.Y. Gift (1876) 19 To shonne his predestinated fortune. 1722 De Foe Plague (1840) 13 Presuming upon their professed predestinating notions, and of every man's end being predetermined. 1737–69 Cruden Concordance (ed. 8) 535/1 Those that are so left [in their infidelity or their corruptions] are the Reprobate, and the others are the Elect or Predestinated. 1819 Chalmers Congregat. Serm. (1836) I. 369 Mysteries attach to the counsels and determinations of a predestinating God. 1827 Pollok Course T. vi. 204 The stagnant, dull, predestinated fool. 1956 R. Macaulay Towers of Trebizond xxi. 242 The predestinating Calvinists in the Celtic mountains. |