Other forms: prospects, prospecting, prospected
A prospect is something that might happen, seen from where you are standing now — and how you feel about it as you look. 'The prospect of another hour in this queue.' Nothing has happened yet, and you can already feel it.
In the plural it means your chances in life: job prospects, promotion prospects, the team's prospects for next season. In business a prospect is a person who might become a customer, which is what a sales team means by the word. The oldest sense is a wide view from a high place — 'a fine prospect over the valley' — and that came first: prospects were things you looked out at before they were things you looked forward to. Watch the stress, because it moves: PROspect for the noun, prosPECT for the verb, which means to search ground for gold or minerals. Hence prospector, and hence prospecting for customers.
1nounprospectThe possibility that something will happen in the future.
“There is no prospect of a decision before Christmas.”
synonyms: possibility, likelihood
2nounpluralIn the plural: someone's chances of success or advancement.
“Her job prospects improved once she finished the course.”
3nounbecomeA person who might become a customer, or who might be recruited.
“The sales team has forty new prospects to call this week.”
4nounwideA wide view over a large area of land.
“From the top of the hill there is a fine prospect over the whole valley.”
5verbsearchTo search an area for gold, oil or minerals.
“Men came from all over the country to prospect the riverbeds.”
prospect is a possibility.
Also accepted in games: possibility
Prospect is Latin prōspectus, 'a view', from prōspiciō — pro, 'forward', plus speciō, 'to look'. A prospect was what you saw when you looked ahead of you from a hill. English kept the looking-forward and quietly swapped distance in space for distance in time, which is why the prospect of Monday is not a view at all.
Proto-Indo-European
*speḱ-
Latin
prōspectus — view, sight, prospect; panorama
Middle English
prospecte
English, today
prospect
Built from
From Middle English prospecte, from Latin prōspectus (“view, sight, prospect; panorama”), from prōspiciō (“to look forward”) + -tus, from pro (“before, forward”) + speciō, spiciō (“to look, to see”). by surface analysis, pro- + -spect. a doublet of prospectus and prospekt. The verb is from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA