Destinés

Destinés is the masculine plural form of the past participle destiné of the French verb destiner. Used as an adjective, destinés means “fated,” “intended,” or “destined,” and agrees with the noun it modifies. For example, ils étaient destinés à devenir médecins translates as they were destined to become doctors. In some contexts the form can also function as a noun phrase, les destinés, meaning “the destined ones,” though this usage is relatively rare and more common in literary or rhetorical styles.

Etymology and sense: The adjective derives from destiner, which comes from Latin destinare, meaning to appoint or determine. The related noun destin denotes fate or fortune and provides a broader sense of an outcome preordained by forces beyond individual choice.

Usage and nuance: Destinés stresses alignment with a preordained plan rather than mere ambition, conveying inevitability or purpose attributed by external forces, circumstance, or narrative structure. It is frequently found in poetry, philosophy, religious discourse, and media, where characters or groups are described as destinés to highlight predestination or a prefigured life path.

In culture and literature, the concept of destiny is a common motif, and destinés appears in various French-language works to evoke a sense of fate or predestination. The term can also appear in titles or descriptive passages to signal the central theme of predetermined paths.

See also: destin, destinée, fate, predestination.