Terminators: Wordplays for Ideas & Insights
Improve Your Foresight
April 23, 1997
Experimenters and explorers have to sharpen their skills and to plan
ahead.
"Improve" dates from 1529 in English but is not related to "prove".
Rather it's derived from the Anglo-French word emprouer meaning "to
invest profitably."
"Improvise" dates from 1826 and is not related to "improve" but is
rooted in the French word improviser, from the Italian improvviso
meaning "sudden." The Italian word is based in the Latin improvisus
meaning "unforeseen." Provisus is the past participle of
providere meaning "to see ahead" and is the root of the English word
"provide." Foresight and planning are great virtues, but scientists
often need to improvise when supplies are lacking or when time is
short.
Other words rooted in providere
- prudent
- prudence
- providence
- provision
And note that from Greek mythology, Prometheus literally means
"foresight" and his brother Epimetheus means "afterthought."
Prometheus' gifts to humans--especially fire and foresight--are a
remarkable combination of technology and knowledge.
Sources: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition;
Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary by Sir William Smith and Sir
John Lockwood.
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