Forethought sb.

[f. FORE- pref. + THOUGHT sb.]

  1.  a. A thinking out or contriving beforehand. (Crime, evil, etc.) of forethought, premeditated.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 27660 (Cott.).

1692.  R. L’Estrange, Fables, ccccxcix. He that’s Undone, is equally Undone, whether it be by a Spitefulness of Forethought, or by the Folly of Oversight, or Evil Counsel.

1788.  Burke, Sp. agst. W. Hastings, Wks. XIII. 12. We urge no crimes, that were not crimes of forethought.

1853.  Wittier, My Namesake, xix.

  b.  Previous thought or consideration; anticipation; also, a thought beforehand.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 26727 (Cott.). Scrift agh be made wit god for-thoght.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well (E.E.T.S.), 172. Ȝif þe contricyoun for þi synne haue a forthowȝt, & he pryue to god alone.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 3. Better is one forethought than two after.

1626.  Dk. Buckhm., in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. 378. The Earl renewed his Petitions, and in some of them, nominated the Duke to be his Successor, without the Dukes privity or fore-thought of it.

1650–3.  trans. Hales’ Dissert. de Pace, in Phenix (1708), II. 366. Shall we imagine that these shall for their mere Ignorance, and the Mistakes of their Understanding, be discarded from the Forethought and foretasted Expectation of eternal Joy?

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, II. viii. In her new need to be reverent while she resisted, the title which she had never given him before came to her lips without forethought.

  † 2.  A preconceived idea or design, an anticipation or forecast. Obs.

a. 1400.  in Legends of the Holy Rood, 145.

c. 1440.  York Myst., ii. 74.

1729.  Shelvocke, Artillery, IV. 217. All these things were only so many Forethoughts of our Hand-Grenado’s.

  3.  Thought for the future, provident care.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. 300. True Seamen are, perhaps, the least of all Mankind given to Fore-thought.

1766.  Blackstone, Comm., II. II. xi. 172. Always more favoured in construction than formal deeds, which are presumed to be made with great caution, fore-thought, and advice.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), IV. 283, Theaetetus, Introduction. To follow custom, to have no new ideas or opinions, not to be straining after impossibilities, to enjoy to-day with just so much forethought as is necessary to provide for the morrow, this is regarded by the greater part of the world as the natural way of passing through existence.

  Hence Forethoughted a., marked by forethought.

1816.  L. Hunt, Rimini, III. 59.