Word of the Day

: January 1, 2007

fatidic

adjective fay-TID-ik

What It Means

: of or relating to prophecy

fatidic in Context

I hope the dream I had last night about losing my wedding ring doesn't prove fatidic.

Did You Know?

As you might guess, "fatidic" is a relative of the word "fate." The Latin word for fate is "fatum," which literally means "what has been spoken." "Fatum," in turn, comes from "fari," meaning "to speak." In the eyes of the ancients, your fate was out of your hands -- what happened was up to gods and demigods. Predicting your fate was a job for oracles and prophets. "Fatidic" is "fatum" combined with "dicere," meaning "to say." That makes "fatidic" a relative of the word "predict" as well; the "-dict" of "predict" also comes from Latin "dicere."