German

Noun

Omen n ‎(genitive Omens, plural Omen or Omina)

1. omen

Declension

English

Noun

omen ‎(plural omens)

1. Something which portends or is perceived to portend a good or evil event or circumstance in the future; an augury or foreboding.

   the ghost's appearance was an ill omen

   a rise in imports might be an omen of recovery

   the egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen

   • 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter X, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     Day broke. He saw three black hens asleep in a tree. He shuddered, horrified at this omen. Then he promised the Holy Virgin three chasubles for the church, and that he would go barefooted from the cemetery at Bertaux to the chapel of Vassonville.

2. prophetic significance

   a sign of ill omen

Usage notes

• Adjectives often applied to "omen": good, ill, bad, auspicious, evil, favorable, happy, lucky.

Synonyms

• portent, sign, signal, token, forewarning, warning, danger sign, foreshadowing, prediction, forecast, prophecy, harbinger, augury, auspice, presage, straw in the wind, (hand)writing on the wall, indication, hint, foretoken; see also Wikisaurus:omen

Related terms

• ominous

Translations

Verb

omen ‎(third-person singular simple present omens, present participle omening, simple past and past participle omened)

1. To be an omen of.
2. To divine or predict from omens.

Synonyms

• prognosticate, betoken, forecast, foretell, portend, foreshadow, bode, augur, prefigure, predict, auspicate, presage

See also

• augury
• foreboding
• portend
• portent
• stars are aligned

Anagrams

• nome, Nome

Latin

Etymology

From Old Latin *osmen, of uncertain ultimate origin. Possibly related to Ancient Greek οἴμαι ‎(oímai, “I think, believe, suppose”), which is from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- ‎(“to see, perceive”)).^[1]. Or, related to audio.^[2] The suffix is the common noun-forming -men.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈoː.men/, [ˈoː.mẽ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈo.men/, [ˈoː.men]

Noun

ōmen n ‎(genitive ōminis); third declension

1. an omen

Inflection

Third declension neuter.

Related terms

• ominatio
• ominator
• ominari
• ominosus

References

• omen in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• omen in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• OMEN in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “omen”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to wish prosperity to an undertaking: aliquid optimis ominibus prosequi (vid. sect. VI. 11., note Prosequi...)
    
  • and may heaven avert the omen! heaven preserve us from this: quod di immortales omen avertant! (Phil. 44. 11)
    
  • to accept as a happy omen: omen accipere (opp. improbare)
    
  • to interpret something as an omen: accipere, vertere aliquid in omen
    
  • with favourable omens: faustis ominibus
    
  • an evil omen; presage of ill: omen infaustum, triste
    
• omen in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

1. ↑ Watkins, Calvert, ed., The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000.
2. ↑ The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Clarendon Press, 1989.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin omen

Noun

omen n ‎(definite singular omenet, indefinite plural omen or omener or omina, definite plural omena or omenene or ominaene)

1. an omen

References

• “omen” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin omen

Noun

omen n ‎(definite singular omenet, indefinite plural omen, definite plural omena)

1. an omen

References

• “omen” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Portuguese

Noun

omen m

1. Alternative form of ome