Etymologically
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ominous

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 16:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɒmɪnəs/[1]
  • US: /ˈɑmɪnəs/, /ˈɒmɪnəs/[1]

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

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