forescent

present singular third person forescents · participle present forescenting · participle past forescented · past forescented

1. To detect the scent of (something) before it is present.

   birds and wild animals forescent a storm, or an earthquake

   1849, John Griffith Mansford, Anno Mundi 1656, and Anno Domini 1849, London: Nisbet & Co., page 6

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   […] the white goose, The saviour of the Roman citadel, Forescents afar the odour of mankind.

   1916, Lucretius, translated by William Ellery Leonard, Of the Nature of Things, London: J.M. Dent, Book 4, pp. 160-161

2. figurativelyTo detect or become aware of (something) in advance.

   1915, Frederick Goodyear, letter to F.W. Leith Ross in Letters and Remains: 1887-1917, London: McBride, Nast, 1920, p. 94, Possibly we instinctively forescented the war.

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   1872, Henry Norman Hudson, Shakespeare: His Life, Art, and Characters, Boston: Ginn & Company, Othello, the Moor of Venice, p. 462, the sagacity with which Iago feels and forescents his way into Roderigo

   Synonyms: anticipate, foresee

plural forescents

1. A scent that indicates something in advance.

   an appalling forescent of his own near approaching discomfiture

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], “chapter 13”, in Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 229

   3 more examples

   The patriarchs and prophets inhaled the sweet odour of Christ, Who was preordained to be born and to die in the flesh; yet they did not then give forth the same odour, because they could not exhibit in the flesh Him of Whom they had a fore-scent in the spirit.

   1920, anonymous translator, St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, Dublin: Browne & Nolan, Volume 2, Sermon 60, p. 190

   An allusion to the garlic breath of the groundlings provides a forescent of the evil smells that pervade the Genoan court.

   1986, Charles R. Forker, chapter 1, in Skull Beneath the Skin: The Achievement of John Webster, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, page 79

   She opened the door on the night and felt the sudden damp forescent of autumn brush past her.

   1998, Niall Williams, Four Letters of Love, New York: Warner Books, Part 7, Chapter 4, pp. 237-238