Remember that "hindsight/retrospect" game?

[xiphias]

aranel is really good at it. So, if you remember, we're looking for pairs of English words which are synonyms, in which both of the words are created from root words in which, in ONE of the pairs, all the roots are Latinate, and in the other pair, they are all Anglo-Saxon/Germanic.

aranel came up with "foretell and predict", "forerunner and precursor", and "overseer and supervisor" (and therefore "oversee" and "supervise").

So, the further question is, is there a connotative distinction between the words "hindsight, foretell, forerunner, overseer/oversee" and "retrospect, predict, precursor, supervise/supervisor"? Does ONE set FEEL different than the other set?

For me, the sets do feel different. One way I was trying to put it into words is that the first set feels like it would fit in a fantasy novel, while the second set would fit into a science fiction novel.

Also, the first set feels more "blue-collar" while the second set is more "white-collar".

In some sense, I feel that English still has that Saxon/Norman cultural split