ominous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ōminōsus (“full of foreboding; inauspicious, portentous”),^[2][3][4][5] from ōmen (“foreboding, augury”), stem ōmin-, with the suffix -ōsus.^[2][5][6] Etymonline calls ōmen a word of unknown origin, which according to Varro came from Old Latin ōsmen;^[3] Klein also gives the earlier form and suggests, with a "perhaps", a link with Ancient Greek οἴομαι (oíomai, “I suppose, think”).^[7] Compare French omineux, from 1605, and Middle French mal ominieuse (“of ill omen”), recorded in 1594.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of ill omen, inauspicious, suggesting future misfortune: 1589, in William Warner's Albions England.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to the 1580s, with the first sense "conveying an omen, significant",^[3] and Merriam-Webster to 1580.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 1590s the word could be used of any omen, good or bad: "of the nature of an omen" (1592, now rare), and even "of good omen, auspicious" (1593 to 1662), and in the 1590s also "disastrous, ruinous".^[2][8] The sense of bad omen soon won out, and Etymonline notes that it is now the only one.^[3][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "foreshewing ill; inauspicious", quoting Shakespeare's "Fatal and ominous to noble peers" from Richard III.^[9] From Marlowe's Lucan (before 1593) it was also used of an appearance, sound or atmosphere that seems menacing.^[2]

Timeline

• 1580s – conveying an omen.^[3][6]
• 1589 – of ill omen, inauspicious, in Warner.^[2][4]
• 1592 – of the nature of an omen (now rare).^[2]
• before 1593 – of a sound or atmosphere, menacing, in Marlowe.^[2]
• 1593 – of good omen, auspicious (obsolete by 1662).^[2][8]
• 1594 – disastrous, ruinous (obsolete by 1671).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Suggesting that something bad is going to happen; threatening or menacing: There was an ominous creak from the stairs.^[10][6][2]
2. Being or serving as an omen; portentous.^[10][6][2]

Word family

• ominously
• ominousness
• unominous

Related words

• omen
• abomination
• abominable

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from portentous, which stresses that what is foreshadowed is momentous rather than necessarily bad, as well as from threatening and menacing;^[5] ominous usually points to evil or harmful outcomes, as in an ominous silence.^[5]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins