Etymologically
Log in

auspicor

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 13:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈau̯s.pɪ.kɔr][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈau̯s.pi.kor][1]

Forms

auspicor (present infinitive auspicārī, perfect active auspicātus sum); first conjugation, deponent[1] An active auspicō is found in early Latin.[2][3][4] Claudius Quadrigarius spells it osp-.[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin auspex (“one who watches birds for omens”) + -or, as auguror is from augur.[2][3][4] De Vaan derives auspex from ⟨*au̯i-speks⟩, a compound of avis (“bird”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eu-i- (“bird”), and the root of speciō (“to look”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“who sees”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius has the active form: a praetor arrives and takes favourable auspices.[3] Plautus also uses the active, as in the Stichus, where someone asks whether he has taken a weasel for an omen in a matter of life and death.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It means to take the auspices: Cicero tells how Gracchus forgot to take them when he crossed the city boundary, and speaks of taking them by the tripudium;[3] Livy writes that the birds did not approve when Fabius took the auspices.[3] Varro has dē caelō auspicārī, from signs in the sky.[2] It is also to make a ceremonial beginning: Varro says the priest of Jupiter inaugurates the vintage.[2] After Augustus it often means simply to begin, to make a start for luck's sake: Columella says people begin every kind of work on the first of January for the omen, Seneca used to make a start by jumping into the Aqua Virgo, and Suetonius has Nero begin his jurisdiction and his singing.[3] Pliny the Elder says man begins life with punishments.[3] Apuleius has the active in the sense "to portend": yesterday's rain was an omen of their tears.[2] The older active auspicō is found in Naevius, Caecilius, Atta and Plautus.[3][4] Stelten gives "begin" for Church Latin.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius of a praetor taking the auspices.[3]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of taking a weasel for an omen.[2][3]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro of inaugurating the vintage.[2]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of taking the auspices.[3]
  • 1st century AD – Columella of beginning work for the omen.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To take the auspices; to seek or receive omens in other ways.[2][3][1]
  2. To make a ceremonial beginning of, inaugurate.[2][3][1]
  3. To begin, enter upon; to make a beginning.[2][3][6][1]
  4. To be the prelude to;[2] (active) to portend.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson