clairvoyant
Meaning
Having or claiming to have the power to see beyond normal sensory perception; able to perceive events in the future or beyond normal contact.
A person who claims to have clairvoyant powers.
Structure
Usage
She gave a remarkably accurate, clairvoyant description of the house she had never visited.
The fortune teller claimed to be a clairvoyant who could communicate with the spirit world.
His analysis of the market was so prescient it seemed almost clairvoyant.
Etymology
The word 'clairvoyant' is a 17th-century borrowing from French, where it literally means "clear-seeing." It is composed of the French elements 'clair' (clear) and 'voyant' (seeing), the present participle of 'voir' (to see). These French components trace back to their Latin ancestors: 'clarus' (clear, bright, famous) and 'vidēre' (to see). The term originally described a supposed faculty of perceiving things beyond normal sight, logically extending the literal idea of "clear seeing" into the metaphysical realm. Over time, its use solidified in English to specifically denote the ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception.
Analysis
- 'clair' originates from Old French, meaning "clear," derived from Latin 'clarus'. - 'voy' originates from Old French, meaning "to see," derived from Latin 'vidēre'. - 'ant' is an adjective-forming suffix of Latin origin via Old French, indicating a quality or state.