Other forms: foretold, foretelling, foretells
To foretell is to say what will happen before it does. Foretell the future, as the prophecy foretells, foretell disaster.
It belongs to prophecy rather than to forecasting — a weather forecast predicts and a seer foretells, and the difference is the claim to certainty. It is literary and slightly grand. Note that the past is foretold, and that fore- means before, as in forewarn and foresee.
1verbforetellTo say what will happen before it does.
“The old woman claimed she could foretell the future by reading tea leaves.”
foretell is a predicting.
Fore- plus tell, formed in Middle English before 1400. Forewarn and foresee are built the same way.
Middle English
foretellen
English, today
foretell
First use appears before 1400, from Middle English foretellen, equivalent to fore- + tell.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA