prudence
Meanings
- The quality or state of being prudent: circumspection and good judgment in knowing how best to act; (countable, archaic) an instance of this.
- Synonym of frugality (“the quality of avoiding unnecessary expenditure; economy, parsimony, thrift, thriftiness”).
- Synonym of providence (“preparation for the future; foresight”).
- Synonym of wisdom (“an element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise; wise advice”).
- A female given name from English, one of the Puritan virtue names.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English prudence (“discretion; foresight; knowledge; intelligence, wisdom; act of good judgment; wisdom to see what is virtuous”), from Anglo-Norman prudence, Middle French prudence, and Old French prudence (“common sense; wisdom”) (modern French prudence), and from their etymon Latin prūdentia (“common sense; discretion, prudence; foresight; knowledge; providence; skilfulness; wisdom”), from prūdent- (the stem of prūdēns (“knowledgeable, skilful; wise, prudent”)) + -ia (suffix forming first-declension feminine abstract nouns). Prūdēns is a contraction of prōvidēns (“caring for; foreseeing; providing”) (whence prōvidentia (“foreknowledge, foresight; forethought, precaution, providence”)), the present active participle of prōvideō (“to care for, look after; to foresee; to provide, see to”), from prō- (prefix meaning ‘forward; prior’) + videō (“to perceive, see; to comprehend, understand; to look out for, care for”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see; to know”)). Doublet of provide and purvey.