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ominosus

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word ominosus

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 165 Messala, quoted by Aulus Gellius More words from the 2nd century
Ultimate origin
Latin ōmen
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin ōmen
English omen
Latin ōminōsus
English ominous
From the same root
Latin ōminor ← ōmen

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [oː.mɪˈnoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [o.miˈnɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

ōminōsus (feminine ōminōsa, neuter ōminōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ōmen + -ōsus, “full of omens”.[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

L&S counts it as post-Augustan.[4] An early example is a fragment of Messala quoted by Aulus Gellius, which calls a hill ominosus because of birds of ill omen, the sense of ominous, foreboding evil.[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The OLD gives the senses presaging ill and inauspicious.[2] Pliny the Younger calls an event ominosa,[4][6] and the Historia Augusta reports something that many thought ominous.[5] A comparative ominosius appears in the grammarian Aquila Romanus,[5][3] and an adverb ōminōsē “ominously” in the Pseudo-Quintilian declamations.[4]

English took it over in the 1580s as ominous, at first meaning “conveying an omen”, later only of ill omen.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 165 AD – Aulus Gellius quotes Messala calling a hill ominous because of birds of ill omen.[4][8]
  • 1580s – Borrowed into English as ominous.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Foreboding evil, portentous, ominous.[2][4]
  2. Of evil omen, inauspicious.[2][6]

Word family

  • abōminōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  6. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
Cite this entry

“Ominosus.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/la/ominosus. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·