prospect
Definitions
The possibility or likelihood of a future event.
前景；可能性；指望
A potential customer, employee, or athlete.
潜在客户；候选人；新秀
A wide view of a landscape.
广阔的景象；远景
To search for mineral deposits, especially gold.
勘探（矿藏，尤指金矿）
Root Breakdown
Root-derivedpro- (forward) + spect (look) = 'a looking forward.' The image is of someone gazing into the distance — toward future possibilities, toward open landscape, or scanning the ground for gold. Each modern sense (career prospects, a sales prospect, prospecting for gold) preserves «looking forward to what may come.»
Root sp still carries 131 more wordsWhy It Means This
Prospect's four senses unify under «looking forward.» 1) A future possibility: «the prospect of rain.» 2) A potential person (customer, athlete, recruit): someone you look forward to engaging. 3) A landscape view: what you see when you look forward. 4) The verb «prospect» (search for gold or oil): scan the ground forward. The 19th-century American Gold Rush gave us «prospector» — someone literally looking ahead for gold in the next stream. Today the «future possibility» sense dominates in everyday English.
Common Collocations
- 1.career prospects职业前景
- 2.in prospect有希望
- 3.good prospects前景良好
- 4.prospect of……的可能性
- 5.prospect for gold探金
Example Sentences
- 1.
There's little prospect of a quick recovery.
- 2.
She is a top prospect for next year's draft.
- 3.
From the hill, the prospect was magnificent.
- 4.
Prospectors flooded into California in 1849.