portent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin portentum (“sign, omen, prodigy, monster”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the noun use of the neuter of portentus, past participle of portendō (“to foretell, portend”),^[2][3][5][8] which is formed from por- (“forward”) and tendō (“to stretch”),^[8][4] the verb being from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch”).^[8][3] Barnhart and Etymonline take it through Middle French portente,^[9][8] but the OED, revised in 2006, gives that form, dated 1477, only as a comparison, beside Spanish portento, Portuguese portento and Catalan portent, all in the sense of a prodigy.^[2] Barnhart thinks the earlier portentous probably influenced the formation.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sign or omen of a momentous or calamitous event: 1562, in N. Winȝet's Certain Tractates.^[2][5] Barnhart's first record is later, in Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563–87).^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word could mean a sign, a prodigy, a monster or a marvellous tale,^[2] and English took up two of these in turn: the omen in 1562 and the prodigy or marvel in 1607, in Jonson's Volpone, a sense the OED now calls rare.^[2] From 1630 it could also name the quality of portending, ominousness.^[2] A weakened sense, a natural indicator of something such as coming weather, follows in 1725.^[2] The word has generally pointed to something bad:^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "omen of ill; prodigy foretokening misery".^[10]

Timeline

• 1562 – a sign or omen of a momentous or calamitous event.^[2][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1560s.^[8]
• 1607 – a prodigy, a marvel.^[2]
• 1630 – ominousness, the quality of portending.^[2]
• early 18th century – stress on the first syllable appears, beside the older stress on the second.^[2]
• 1725 – a natural sign, as of coming weather.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sign or omen of a coming event, especially a momentous or calamitous one: The sailors took the red moon as a portent of shipwreck.^[11][5][2]
2. Prophetic or ominous significance: a silence of grave portent.^[11][5][2]
3. A natural indicator of something to come, such as a change in the weather.^[2][7]
4. (rare) A prodigy or marvel, something extraordinary.^[2][11][7]

Word family

• portentive

Related words

• portend
• portentous
• tend

Usage notes

The stress was originally on the second syllable and stayed there in some use until the 19th century; first-syllable stress is found from the early 18th century, and Pope's verse shows both.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins