prudence

name

1. A female given name from English, one of the Puritan virtue names.

noun

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.

1. The quality or state of being prudent: circumspection and good judgment in knowing how best to act; (countable, archaic) an instance of this.

   “[T]here are ſo many concurrencies vvhich have their attending cheques; vvhich poſſible are to be, but actually, vvere not improved in remedy that the prevalence of the Fire againſt, and in deſpight of thoſe vvonted prudences, and uſual reſiſtances, and the Latitude of effects, ſeconding ſuch a neglect of impending means, vvhere ſo vvell underſtood, and ſo dextrouſly at other times practiſed; […]”

   “Concerning intellectual Habits or the genuine effects of theſe acts in the underſtanding Faculty, and they are divers and diverſly expreſſed by thoſe that have treated thereof. […] Prudence, vvhich is principally in reference to actions to be done, the due means, order, ſeaſon, method of doing or not doing.”

2. Synonym of frugality (“the quality of avoiding unnecessary expenditure; economy, parsimony, thrift, thriftiness”).
3. Synonym of providence (“preparation for the future; foresight”).

   “For 'tis my ſetled Opinion, that Divine Prudence is often, at leaſt, converſant in a peculiar manner about the Actions of Men, and the things that happen to Them, or have a neceſſary Connexion vvith the One, or the Other, or Both.”

4. Synonym of wisdom (“an element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise; wise advice”).

   “Children here ye the fathers diſcipline, and attend that you may knovve prudence.”

   “[H]e [Pythagoras] vvent from Ægypt to the Perſians, (not to Perſia, as ſome conceive) and reſigned himſelf to the moſt exact prudence of the Magi, to be formed.”