A result that is already known and therefore is taken for granted. The term comes from Shakespeare’s Othello (3.3), in which, after hearing Iago’s lie about Cassio talking in his sleep of his love affair with Desdemona, Othello says this “dream” is a “foregone conclusion”—that is, it clearly denotes that his wife has been unfaithful to him with Cassio (as Iago intended him to believe all along). Some four centuries later the term is still around: “But it could be argued that it was a surprise so many Spaniards were prepared to take part in a vote which was a foregone conclusion” (Economist, Feb. 26, 2005).