▪ I. augur, n.
(ˈɔːgə(r))
Also 6–7 augure.
[a. L. augur, earlier auger; perh. f. av-is bird + -gar, connected with garrire to talk, garrulus talkative, and Skr. gar to shout, call, show, make known; but Fick would derive it from augēre to increase, promote, etc.; cf. auctor author n.]
1. A religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds, the appearance of the entrails of sacrificial victims, celestial phenomena, and other portents.
| 1549 Hooper Commandm. vi. Wks. (1852) 327 There were some called augures, that by observation of the birds of the air..made men believe they knew things to come. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 78 Having like an Augur watched, Which way he took his flight. 1879 Froude Cæsar iii. 21 The College of Augurs could declare the auspices unfavourable, and so close all public business. |
2. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foretells the future.
| 1593 Drayton Eclogues i. 7 Philomel, the augure of the Spring. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 115 The Phrygians, Cilicians, and Arabians were very skilfull augurs, or diviners by the flight of birds. 1718 Pope Iliad i. 131 Augur accursed! denouncing mischief still, Prophet of plagues, for ever boding ill! |
▪ II. augur, v.
(ˈɔːgə(r))
[f. prec. n.; or a. F. augure-r (14th c.), ad. L. augurāri, f. augur; see prec.]
1. trans. To prognosticate from signs or omens; to divine, forebode, anticipate.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster i. i, I did augur all this to him beforehand. 1775 Burke Sp. Conc. Amer. Wks. III. 56 They augur misgovernment at a distance and snuff the approach of tyranny. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. i. 25 The Docter..hastened down stairs, auguring some new occasion for his services. 1852 D. Mitchell Bat. Summer 70 Who augured from the very fact, a state of quietude. |
b. Of things: to betoken, portend, give promise of.
| 1826 Scott Mal. Malagr. i. 54 It seems to augur genius. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. i. 32 Whose open, handsome, hardy face augured a frank and fearless nature. |
2. intr. (or with subord. clause). To take auguries; to conjecture from signs or omens; to have foreknowledge or foreboding.
| 1808 Scott Marm. iii. xv, Not that he augur'd of the doom, Which on the living closed the tomb. 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 119 What have the cock-sparrows to do with it; do we augur from them, as the Romans did from chickens? 1877 Sparrow Serm. xxiii. 308 He may augur the gust is coming, but cannot prevent it. |
3. esp. (with well or ill) a. Of persons: to have good or bad anticipations or expectations of, for.
| 1803 Wellington in Gurwood Disp. II. 275, I augur well from this circumstance. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 544 Fletcher, from the beginning, had augured ill of the enterprise. 1859 Jephson Brittany vi. 69 As I looked at his good-natured face I augured well for my reception. |
b. Of things: to give good or bad promise. [Perh. ill was orig. a n. = evil.]
| 1788 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 506 One vote, which augurs ill to the rights of the people. 1810 Scott Lady of L. iii. vii, All augured ill for Alpine's line. 1855 Prescott Philip II (1857) 68 A reverential deference, which augured well for the success of his mission. |
4. trans. (also with in) To induct into office or usher in with auguries; to inaugurate.
| 1549 Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 46 Numa Pompilus, who was augured and created king [of] the Romaynes next after Romulus. 1865 Reader 11 Feb. 157 Profuse promises have augured in its birth. |
▪ III. augur
variant of augure, Obs., augury.