Weather forecasting

The fourteenth entry is la previsione stagionale, and the noun that opens it works in two places English keeps firmly apart. In the bulletin it is what it looks like: the forecast, the statement about weather that has not happened yet, and the verb behind it, prevedere, is to foresee — prevedo un ritardo, come previsto. Then the same verb walks into a contract and changes trade. Il contratto prevede una penale does not say that the contract expects anything; it says the contract provides for a penalty. La legge prevede una multa lays down a fine. Il programma prevede tre tappe includes three stages, as a matter of arrangement rather than of guesswork. And l’arrivo è previsto alle nove is scheduled, not predicted. English needs « forecast », « provide for », « lay down » and « schedule » to cover that ground, and no two of the four feel related. The test that sorts them is the subject of the verb. When a person or a model does the prevedere, it is a forecast; when a document, a law or a timetable does it, nobody is guessing, and the English word wanted is one of arrangement.