Foreseeable means able to be expected within the near future. Not certain — predictable.
The word lives in one phrase above all: for the foreseeable future, meaning indefinitely, or at least for as long as anybody is willing to guess. Law uses it precisely and heavily, since liability often depends on whether harm was foreseeable, and that single word decides a great many cases. The negative unforeseeable is used the same way. The verb foresee has an irregular past, foresaw and foreseen.
1adjectiveforeseeableAble to be predicted or expected.
“The damage was entirely foreseeable.”
Old English
foresēon
Middle English
foreseen
English
foresee
English, today
foreseeable
From foresee + -able. foresee comes from Middle English foreseen, forseen, from Old English foresēon; equivalent to fore- + see. Similar formations in Dutch voorzien, German vorsehen, Latin prōvideō, (whence provide and purvey), Ancient Greek πρόοιδα, Polish przewidzieć, Russian провидеть.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA