auspicious

Etymology

It is formed from English auspice + -ous,^[2][3][4] or, as the OED, Merriam-Webster and Klein put it, from Latin auspicium (“divination from the flight of birds”) and the same suffix.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The English noun came through French auspice, recorded in the 14th century, from the Latin one.^[5][7][2] The Latin noun comes from auspex (“diviner, augur”), literally a bird-seer, made of avis (“bird”) and the stem of speciō (“to look at”).^{[7][10][8][2]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Favouring or likely to bring success: 1593, according to Merriam-Webster's Unabridged;^[6] Etymonline finds the adjective implied in auspiciously in the 1590s,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford dates both to the late 16th century.^[2] The OED, in an entry not fully revised since 1885, has its first record in 1614, in John Selden's Titles of Honor, for "of good omen".^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Rome an auspex watched the flight of birds for omens, and auspicium was the taking of such omens;^[10] auspice was first used in English for this Roman practice and later for a forecast, especially of a happy future, so auspicious came to mean fortunate or favourable.^[10] Shakespeare used it both of things that favour success ("auspicious gales" in The Tempest) and of persons who show favour ("thy auspicious mistress" in All's Well that Ends Well).^[5][4] From 1616 it could also mean prosperous or fortunate,^[5] a sense Collins now marks as archaic.^[11] Johnson (1755) gave four senses: having omens of success, prosperous, favourable or kind (of persons), and lucky or happy (of things).^[4]

Timeline

• 1593 – favouring or conducive to success.^[6] Etymonline finds it implied in auspiciously in the 1590s.^[8]
• 1614 – of good omen, promising success.^[5]
• before 1616 – favourable; of persons, kind and propitious, in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1616 – prosperous, fortunate.^[5]
• 1702 – of persons, foretelling good.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing signs that success is likely; promising, propitious: The firm made an auspicious start to the year.^[6][11][2]
2. Favourable or helpful to success: an auspicious moment to ask for a raise.^[2][5][6]
3. (archaic) Prosperous, fortunate.^[11][5][4]

Word family

• auspiciously
• auspiciousness
• unauspicious

Related words

• auspice
• augur
• aviary
• aviation
• species
• spy
• inaugural

Usage notes

Collins advises against using auspicious to mean simply "very special", as when a ceremony is called an auspicious occasion.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins