augury

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English augurie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French augurie,^{[5][4][6][7][2]} and directly borrowed from Latin augurium (“divination from the flight of birds; omen”).^{[5][8][6][7][2]} The OED and Merriam-Webster call the French word Middle French; the OED records it from the 13th century in Old French and compares the Anglo-Norman forms augorrye and augurrie.^[8][3] The Latin noun is formed from augur (“augur, seer”) with the suffix -ium,^[8][9][10] and the OED compares Spanish augurio and Italian augurio.^[8] The word for an augur is of uncertain origin:^[8] it may be from augeō (“to increase”), from Proto-Indo-European *aug- (“to increase”), perhaps first meaning a ritual increase of crops, as de Vaan suggests;^[5][8] the more popular theory, in Etymonline's account, takes it from avis (“bird”) and perhaps garriō (“to talk”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Divination from the behaviour of birds: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde of about 1385 says that to believe in the augurye of thise fowles is bothe fals and foul.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1325–75.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word already covered both the art and its result, from the practice of divining by birds to an omen or presage,^[8] and English took up these uses over about three centuries.^[8] The art came first, and by the 15th century it could be named with other sciences, as in the Middle English Mandeville, beside astronomy and necromancy.^[2] From before 1522, in Douglas's translation of Virgil, it could mean skill in foretelling, now rare and historical.^[8][6] Omens follow from 1588,^[8][3] though Etymonline dates "omen, portent" to the 1610s and notes that it is often plural,^[5] and a single ceremony from 1611, in Jonson's Catiline.^[8][6] The sense "indication of what is to come" dates from 1654,^[8][3] and in "foreboding, expectation", from 1719.^[8] Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra uses it for the diviner himself, a sense the OED records no later than 1620.^[8] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: the act of foretelling by omens, the rules observed by augurs, and an omen or prediction.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – divination, especially from the behaviour of birds.^[8][2][5]
• before 1522 – skill or power in foretelling (now rare).^[8]
• 1588 – an omen or portent.^[8] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1610s.^[5]
• 1611 – a ceremony or act of divination.^[8]
• before 1616 – a diviner, an augur (obsolete by 1620).^[8]
• 1654 – an indication of a future event; promise.^[8]
• 1719 – foreboding, an expectation about the future.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art or practice of divination from signs, such as the flight of birds, or from chance events.^[12][3][8]
2. A rite or ceremony conducted by an augur.^[12][3][8]
3. A sign of what will happen; an omen or portent: The clear dawn seemed a good augury for the voyage.^[12][3][8]
4. An indication of the future, or a foreboding of it.^[3][8][6]
5. (archaic) Skill in divination.^[8][6]

Word family

• augural

Related words

• augur
• inaugurate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins