prophesy

Etymology 1

From Middle English prophecien; partly from prophecie, and partly from Middle French prophecier, prophesier, from prophecie (“prophecy”).

verb

1. To speak or write with divine inspiration; to act as prophet.
   No, but when the Spirit fils The fantastick Pannicles: Full of fier; then I write 1648, Robert Herrick, “Not every day fit for Verse” in Hesperides, London: John Williams & Francis Eglesfield, p. 285, ’Tis not ev’ry day, that I Fitted am to prophesie
   […] at that very moment a loud and high-pitched voice broke the outer silence of the night. It was Chielo, the priestess of Agbala, prophesying. There was nothing new in that. Once in a while Chielo was possessed by the spirit of her god and she began to prophesy. 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, Oxford: Heinemann, published 1996, Part One, Chapter Eleven, p. 70
2. To predict, to foretell (with or without divine inspiration).
   People prophesied a long continuance to this already lengthened frost; said the spring would be very late; no spring fashions required; no summer clothing purchased for a short uncertain summer. 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 5, in Mary Barton
   ‘It has been prophesied more than once that he will find it.’ 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 745
3. To foreshow; to herald; to prefigure.
4. (intransitive, Christianity) To speak out on the Bible as an expression of holy inspiration; to preach.
   1646, Jeremy Taylor, Of the Liberty of Prophesying, Section 4, in Treatises of 1. The liberty of prophesying, 2. Prayer ex tempore, 3. Episcopacie: together with a sermon, London: R. Royston, 1648, p. 73, […] if we consider that we have no certain wayes of determining places of difficulty and Question, infallibly and certainly […] we shall see a very great necessity in allowing a liberty in Prophesying without prescribing authoritatively to other mens consciences, and becomming Lords and Masters of their Faith.

Etymology 2

From Middle English pprophesy, prophesie, prophessye, prophesye.

noun

1. Obsolete spelling of prophecy; now a misspelling.
   I take it néedles, and booteles to make ouer déepe, or ſcrupulous enquiry into euery moſt auncient, and obſolete antiquitie: I preſuppoſe it ſufficient to peruſe, and examine the moſt famous, and moſt autentique ſuppoſed propheſies, that haue curranteſt paſſage, and repaſſage in moſt mouthes, and bookes: conſidering how eaſily euerie indifferent man may proportionably make eſtimation of the woorſe, by the better, and ratably value the one by the other. 1588, John Harvey, A Discoursive Probleme concerning Prophesies, how far they are to be valued or credited, page 8
   This was the fullneſs of Time, in which all the Propheſies (concerning the Meſſias) were exactly fulfilled. Nothing was ever foretold of Jeſus Chriſt, which was not exactly performed in the fullneſs of Time. 1670, Thomas Price, The Mystery of Mysteries Revealed in the Fullnesse of Time.[…], London: Printed by T. R. and T. D. for William Saywell[…], page 25
   BEING An Hiſtorical Deſcription of the Papal Empire, as it is Originally Copied out of the Propheſies of Holy Writ. 1690, J[ohn] B[utler], Bellua Marina: or the Monstrous Beast Which Arose out of the Sea.[…], London: […] George Croom, title page
   From 1890, when the McKinley bill passed, nursery products had steadily declined, until to-day many articles were being offered at rates below the actual cost of production, so that the people who favored the restoration of the duty have lived to see their prophesies falsified, because the result has not been to decrease the plantage and increase the price, but has had exactly the opposite effect. 1894 July, “The American Association: Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting at Niagara Falls”, in The National Nurseryman, volume 2, number 6, page 74
   I’ve watched the “magic” and the “mystery” of the Bible from soul-winning clinics, Salvation Army curb services, and stadiumsful-on-crusade to perjury-proofing on Perry Mason (“Swear to tell the whole truth . . . so help me God.”) to prophesies of submarines by desert-dwellers! 1975 December, The Student, volume LV, number 3, Nashville, Tenn.: The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention
   The nut-bar in Bed Three kept us all awake with his morose, nonsensical prophesies. 2007, Emily Givner, A Heart in Port, page 202
   Prophesies of degentrification appear to have been overstated as many neighborhoods continue to gentrify while others, further from the city center begin to experience the process for the first time. 2013, Loretta Lees, Tom Slater, Elvin Wyly, Gentrification
   We bend our knees to the ground Seeking refuge from the One on High To redeem us from the Prophesies of the fore-days Consigning these daysafter The last days, as the evil days 2016, David Udo, “The Last Days”, in The Ripples