omen

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōmen (“foreboding, augury”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the source also of ominous, through ōminōsus, and of abominable.^[7][6] An older Latin form osmen is reported by Varro.^[3][8][9] Varro derived the word from ōs (“mouth”).^[2] Modern scholars reject this, because the suffix -men is usually added to a verb.^[2] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain, and none of the proposed etymologies is more likely than the others.^{[2][3][4][10]} Klein compares Ancient Greek οἴομαι (oíomai, “I suppose, think”);^[9] de Vaan doubts that osmen really existed, and finds a connection with Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see”), as "a sighting", semantically more likely than one with a word for "trust".^[11] The Latin derivative ōminor meant to know or tell from omens.^[3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An event regarded as a sign of good or evil to come: 1582, in Richard Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil's Aeneid.^[2][4][12]

Semantic evolution

From 1634 the word was also used as a mass noun for prophetic meaning itself, often in phrases such as of good omen or of ill omen.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a sign good or bad; a prognostick", quoting Dryden.^[13] The verb, to be a sign of or to presage, is recorded from 1697,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to 1775;^[3] the adjective omened is slightly older.^[2]

Timeline

• 1582 – a sign foreshadowing good or evil.^[2][4]
• 1634 – prophetic significance, as in of good omen.^[2]
• 1697 – verb, to portend or presage.^[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1775.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An event or phenomenon taken as a sign of good or bad fortune to come; a portent: The dark clouds over the harbour seemed an omen of the voyage.^[14][12][2]
2. Prophetic meaning; indication of what is to come: a bird of ill omen.^[14][2]

Verb

1. To be a sign of; to presage or portend.^[14][12][2]

Word family

• bird of ill omen

Related words

• ominous
• abomination
• abominable

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins