'Prognosis' is Greek for 'foreknowledge' — Hippocrates believed predicting outcomes was central to medicine.
A forecast of the likely outcome of a situation, especially the likely course of a disease or ailment; a prediction.
From Late Latin prognosis, from Greek prognosis (foreknowledge, prediction), from pro- (before, forward) + gignoskein (to know, to learn), from PIE *gno- (to know). A prognosis is literally fore-knowledge — knowing in advance of the outcome. The PIE root *gno- is extraordinary in its reach: English know, can (originally to know how), and cunning (skilled, knowing); Latin cognition, recognition, notion, noble (from gnobilis, knowable, known); Greek gnosis, gnomon (the knowing part of a sundial), and diagnosis (knowing through, knowing the difference); Sanskrit
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote an entire treatise called 'Prognostikon' (c. 400 BCE) arguing that the physician's most important skill was predicting the course of illness — not just treating it. He believed that accurate prognosis established the doctor's credibility: a physician who could foretell whether a patient would recover or die earned