▪ I. omen, n.
(ˈəʊmən)
[a. L. ōmen, OL. (according to Varro) osmen, perh. for ausmen, f. root of audīre to hear + -men (as in carmen, etc.).]
a. Any phenomenon or circumstance supposed to portend good or evil; a token significant of the nature of a future event; a prophetic sign, prognostic, augury.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 66 You Gods of countrye this is eke your prosperus omen. 1600 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. iv. ii, I take it for no good omen, to find mine Honor so deiected. 1637 Heywood Dialogues ii. Wks. 1874 VI. 113 Far be that Omen from vs [= L. absit omen!]. 1719 Young Busiris iii. 1, May all the gods watch o'er your life and empire, And render omens vain! 1836 W. Irving Astoria I. 198 They retained much of the Indian belief in charms and omens. 1874 Green Short Hist. viii. §4. 497 Men noted as a fatal omen the accident which marked his first entry into Lambeth. |
b. Without an and pl.: Indication of good or evil to come; foreboding; prognostication. In quot. 1742 personified.
| 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 114 And on her Cheek, the Residence of Spring, Pale Omen sat. 1825 Lytton Zicci 78, I trust your business to our illustrious guest is of good omen and pleasant import. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. ix. 326 A day of the brightest omen. 1876 Mozley Univ. Serm. iv. (1877) 73 Birds of evil omen fly to and fro. |
c. attrib. and Comb., as omen-animal, omen-bearing, omen-bird, omen-hunter, omen-hunting, omen-monger, etc.
| 1695 Congreve Love for L. iv. xi, Directed by a dreamer, an omen-hunter. 1777 H. Walpole Lett., to M. Cole 16 Sept. (1846) V. 472, I hope fatalists and omen-mongers will be confuted. 1899 A. B. Bruce Moral Ord. World 150 The eagle and other omen-bearing birds. 1902 Man II. 61 The chapters on the omen-animals and the cult of skulls are of special value. |
▪ II. omen, v.
(ˈəʊmən)
[f. prec. n. Cf. L. ōmināre, -ārī.]
trans. To presage, prognosticate, forebode.
| 1805 Southey Madoc ii. xi, An offering which shall more propitiate them, And omen sure success. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxiv, The yet unknown verdict, of which, however, all omened the tragical contents. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. C.'s Lett. III. 91 Good or ill luck for the whole year being omened by your liking or otherwise of the first person that accosts you on New Year's morning. |