means The theological or philosophical doctrine that all events, especially the fate of each soul, have been determined in advance by God or some higher power.

from From Latin praedestinare, 'to determine beforehand,' built from prae- ('before') and destinare ('to make firm, establish, appoint') — the same destinare that gives us 'destiny' and 'destination.' Latin destinare itself traces back to a root meaning 'to make fast' or 'fix in place,' a cousin of 'stand' and 'stable,' so the word literally pictures your fate nailed down ahead of time. It entered English through Church Latin and Old French in the medieval period, when the question of whether God had already sorted the saved from the damned was very much a live and bitter debate.