Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE-DIC'A-MENT, n. [Fr. from L. prædicamentum, from prædico, to affirm.]

1. In logic, a category; a series or order of all the predicates or attributes contained under any genus. The school philosophers distribute all the objects of our thoughts and ideas into genera or classes, which the Greeks call categories, and the Latins predicaments. Aristotle made ten categories, viz. substance, quantity, quality, relation, action, passion, time, place, situation and habit. – Encyc.
2. Class or kind described by any definite marks; hence, condition; particular situation or state. – Shak. We say, the country is in a singular predicament.