English
vatical
Vatical comes from Latin vates ‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- ‘to be excited’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂t-‘to be excited’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéh₂t-i-s‘seer’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wātisreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvates‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’
- Englishearliest quotation 1612–1634vatical
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weh₂t-‘to be excited’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wéh₂t-i-s‘seer’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*wātisreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvates‘seer, soothsayer, diviner, prophet, prophetess’
- Englishearliest quotation 1612–1634vatical
Earliest quotation: 1612–1634, Joseph Hall, (please specify the page): “Neither couldst thou have made up those vatical predictions…”
Formed from -ical
The story
Latin vates a prophet, and + -ical.
Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t-
Today it means
adj Of or pertaining to a prophet; prophetic.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- / vatical