omen
English
Noun
omen (plural omens)
- Something which portends or is perceived to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; an augury or foreboding.
- the ghost's appearance was an ill omen
- a rise in imports might be an omen of economic recovery
- the egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen
- 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling
- Day broke. He saw three black hens asleep in a tree. He shuddered, horrified at this omen. Then he promised the Holy Virgin three chasubles for the church, and that he would go barefooted from the cemetery at Bertaux to the chapel of Vassonville.
- prophetic significance
- a sign of ill omen
Usage notes
- Adjectives often applied to "omen": good, ill, bad, auspicious, evil, favorable, happy, lucky.
Synonyms
- portent, sign, signal, token, forewarning, warning, danger sign, foreshadowing, prediction, forecast, prophecy, harbinger, augury, auspice, presage, straw in the wind, (hand)writing on the wall, indication, hint, foretoken; see also Thesaurus:omen
Related terms
Translations
something which portends or is perceived to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; an augury or foreboding
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prophetic significance
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Verb
omen (third-person singular simple present omens, present participle omening, simple past and past participle omened)
Synonyms
- prognosticate, betoken, forecast, foretell, portend, foreshadow, bode, augur, prefigure, predict, auspicate, presage
See also
Further reading
- omen in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- omen in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Latin
Etymology
From Old Latin osmen, of uncertain ultimate origin. Ancient authors derived it from ōs (“mouth”). Recently it was by some referred to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to see, perceive”) (whence audiō)[1] or to the source of Ancient Greek Ancient Greek οἴομαι (oíomai, “I think, believe, suppose”)[2].
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈoː.men/, [ˈoː.mɛn]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈo.men/, [ˈoː.men]
Inflection
Third declension neuter.
Case | Singular | Plural |
---|---|---|
Nominative | ōmen | ōmina |
Genitive | ōminis | ōminum |
Dative | ōminī | ōminibus |
Accusative | ōmen | ōmina |
Ablative | ōmine | ōminibus |
Vocative | ōmen | ōmina |
References
- omen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- omen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- omen in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
- omen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
- Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
- to wish prosperity to an undertaking: aliquid optimis ominibus prosequi (vid. sect. VI. 11., note Prosequi...)
- and may heaven avert the omen! heaven preserve us from this: quod di immortales omen avertant! (Phil. 44. 11)
- to accept as a happy omen: omen accipere (opp. improbare)
- to interpret something as an omen: accipere, vertere aliquid in omen
- with favourable omens: faustis ominibus
- an evil omen; presage of ill: omen infaustum, triste
- to wish prosperity to an undertaking: aliquid optimis ominibus prosequi (vid. sect. VI. 11., note Prosequi...)
- omen in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “omen” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.
- Watkins, Calvert (1985) The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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