The first step that we are going to take before entering fully into the meaning of the unforeseen term is to know its etymological origin. In this case, we have to state that it is a word that derives from Latin, specifically it is the result of the sum of three lexical components of that language:
-The prefix “im-”, which is synonymous with “no”.
-The “pre” element, which is equivalent to “before”.
-The adjective "visitus", which means "seen".
Unforeseen is what was not foreseen: that is, it could not be seen, detected or known in advance. The unforeseen, therefore, surprises.
For example: "I liked the unforeseen end of the film as it escapes from the usual" , "This month we had several unforeseen expenses and the truth is that we ran out of money" , "The unexpected meeting moved the woman, who did not expect come across your ex-partner at the party . "
Sudden, unexpected, abrupt or unpredictable are some of the words that function as a synonym for the term that now occupies us. On the contrary, among its antonyms we find others such as foreseen, expected, fixed or suspected.
It is common to find unforeseen events or situations in everyday life. Suppose that a person traveling by train to his place of work finds out, upon arrival at the station, that the service is running with a delay of half an hour due to an accident that occurred hours before. This unforeseen event causes him to end up being late for his job, since he had not foreseen this contingency and, therefore, he did not leave his home in advance.
A man who had promised to take his daughter to a park may be forced to cancel the plan as his boss asks him to stay extra time at the office to complete some pending tasks. In order not to have a work problem, the subject complies with the request: in this way, the unexpected prevents him from enjoying an outing with his daughter.
A mechanical failure in a car that had not previous signals, a power outage by the sudden explosion of a transformer and a visit to the doctor after suffering a blow to the head by a slip on the street are other unforeseen situations that may require to modify what was planned.
In the same way, in culture we come across different types of works that use the word at hand or its feminine in their titles. This would be the case, for example, of the first novel for adult audiences written by the English author JKRowling, known for her saga starring Harry Potter.
We are referring to the book "An unforeseen vacancy", which was published in 2012 and which revolves around the situations that, in a small town, originate as a result of the existence of a vacancy in a parish council.
Likewise, there is also the work entitled "The unforeseen case of the boy in the fishbowl", which was written by Lisa Thompson for a young audience and which stars a 12-year-old boy with obsessive-compulsive disorder.