omen

o·men

O0071300 (ō′mən)n.1. A phenomenon supposed to portend good or evil; a prophetic sign.2. Prognostication; portent: birds of ill omen.tr.v. o·mened, o·men·ing, o·mens To be a prophetic sign of; portend.

[Latin ōmen.]

omen

(ˈəʊmən) n1. a phenomenon or occurrence regarded as a sign of future happiness or disaster2. prophetic significancevb (tr) to portend[C16: from Latin]

o•men

(ˈoʊ mən)
n. 1. any event believed to portend something good or evil; augury; portent. 2. prophetic significance; presage. v.t. 3. to be an omen of; portend. 4. to divine, as if from omens. [1575–85; < Latin] syn: See sign.

Omen

handwriting on the wall A portent or prophecy of disaster, a sign of impending and unavoidable doom, an indication or sense of what is to come; often the writing on the wall. The allusion is to the Book of Daniel in the Bible, in which a hand mysteriously appeared and wrote a message on Balshazzar’s palace wall foretelling his destruction and the loss of his kingdom.

my little finger told me that Pain or pleasurable sensation in the fingers was considered by the ancient Roman augurs a sign of evil or joy to come. The pricking of one’s thumb was considered a portent of evil.

By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes. (Shakespeare, Macbeth, IV, i)

Thus, one’s finger or thumb can be said to “tell” the future. Sometimes my little finger told me that is used to indicate that one has access to certain information, the source of which may be controversial and unscientific.

stormy petrel One whose arrival is seen as a harbinger of trouble. Stormy petrels (Procellaria pelágica) are the sea birds which sailors call Mother Carey’s chickens. Petrel is derived from the Italian Petrello ‘little Peter,’ in allusion to the way these birds appear to walk on the sea, just as St. Peter walked on the Lake of Gennesareth. Stormy petrels are most often observed just prior to and during a storm; thus, their arrival portends deteriorating weather conditions. The expression may now be applied to anyone whose coming is inevitably followed by disaster or tragedy.

Dr. von Esmarch is regarded at court as a stormy petrel, and every effort was made to conceal his visit to the German emperor. (The World, April, 1892)

See also Mother Carey is plucking her chickens, WEATHER.

weather breeder See WEATHER.

omen

Past participle: omened
Gerund: omening

Imperative
omen
omen

Present
I omen
you omen
he/she/it omens
we omen
you omen
they omen

Preterite
I omened
you omened
he/she/it omened
we omened
you omened
they omened

Present Continuous
I am omening
you are omening
he/she/it is omening
we are omening
you are omening
they are omening

Present Perfect
I have omened
you have omened
he/she/it has omened
we have omened
you have omened
they have omened

Past Continuous
I was omening
you were omening
he/she/it was omening
we were omening
you were omening
they were omening

Past Perfect
I had omened
you had omened
he/she/it had omened
we had omened
you had omened
they had omened

Future
I will omen
you will omen
he/she/it will omen
we will omen
you will omen
they will omen

Future Perfect
I will have omened
you will have omened
he/she/it will have omened
we will have omened
you will have omened
they will have omened

Future Continuous
I will be omening
you will be omening
he/she/it will be omening
we will be omening
you will be omening
they will be omening

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been omening
you have been omening
he/she/it has been omening
we have been omening
you have been omening
they have been omening

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been omening
you will have been omening
he/she/it will have been omening
we will have been omening
you will have been omening
they will have been omening

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been omening
you had been omening
he/she/it had been omening
we had been omening
you had been omening
they had been omening

Conditional
I would omen
you would omen
he/she/it would omen
we would omen
you would omen
they would omen

Past Conditional
I would have omened
you would have omened
he/she/it would have omened
we would have omened
you would have omened
they would have omened

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	omen - a sign of something about to happen; "he looked for an omen before going into battle"portent, prognostic, prognostication, presage, prodigyaugury, foretoken, preindication, sign - an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come; "he hoped it was an augury"; "it was a sign from God"auspice - a favorable omenforeboding - an unfavorable omendeath knell - an omen of death or destruction
Verb	1.	omen - indicate by signs; "These signs bode bad news"augur, auspicate, bode, foreshadow, portend, presage, prognosticate, predict, prefigure, betoken, forecast, foretellthreaten - to be a menacing indication of something:"The clouds threaten rain"; "Danger threatens"bespeak, betoken, indicate, signal, point - be a signal for or a symptom of; "These symptoms indicate a serious illness"; "Her behavior points to a severe neurosis"; "The economic indicators signal that the euro is undervalued"foreshow - foretell by divine inspiration

omen

noun portent, sign, warning, threat, indication, foreshadowing, foreboding, harbinger, presage, forewarning, writing on the wall, prognostication, augury, prognostic, foretoken Her appearance at this moment is an omen of disaster.Quotations
"May the gods avert this omen" [Cicero Third Philippic]
"omen: a sign that something will happen if nothing happens" [Ambrose Bierce The Devil's Dictionary]

omen

nounA phenomenon that serves as a sign or warning of some future good or evil:augury, forerunner, foretoken, portent, prefigurement, presage, prognostic, prognostication, sign.Idiom: writing on the wall.

Translations

预兆

omen

(ˈəumən) noun a sign of a future event. Long ago, storms were regarded as bad omens.预兆

omen

omen,

sign or augury believed to foreshadow the future. Almost any occurrence can be interpreted as an omen. The typical omen was a natural phenomenon, such as a meteor, an eclipse, or the flight of birds. Among the Greeks and Romans the interpretation of omens was a major part of religious life and required trained priests, such as the Roman augur, to explain the meaning of the signs. Belief in omens still survives in superstitions concerning such things as black cats, nightmares, unlucky days, and breaking mirrors.

Omen

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

A sign or indication of forthcoming events; a portent of what is to come. One deeply held belief says that coming events can cast their shadows in front of them. They do this in the form of omens. As one example, when a black cat crosses your path, moving from right to left, it is said to foretell some ill luck that is coming your way. Some folklore, however, has it that it is ill luck if the cat proceeds from the left and crosses to the right. When a flock of birds flies across your path, usually from left to right, it signifies good luck coming. To see a spotted dog is good luck on its way, while to encounter a white horse and a red-headed woman is bad luck.

These are natural omens that may easily be recognized and noted. But many believers in the past made it a science to discover what is to be. Four thousand years ago, the Babylonians would sacrifice a sheep and study its liver for signs of future events. The coloring of the liver, its veins, and its blemishes were all indicative of certain things. The Romans would place a cockerel in the center of a circle of grain. Beneath the grain lay the letters of the alphabet. Note was made of which letters were beneath the grain that the cockerel chose to peck, and those letters were made to form a word or words.

The alighting of a white dove on the banner of Joan of Arc was seen as a favorable omen. Primitive peoples have interpreted rainbows, eclipses of the sun, comets, shooting stars, and other unusual events in the sky as omens. Seers and soothsayers made a living by interpreting omens and portents. Today, fortunetellers, card readers, astrologers, and other diviners carry on the tradition of foretelling future probabilities.

Omen

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Omens are presages or prognostications, indications of something that is likely to happen in the future. They developed in a variety of ways, most of them through some unusual occurrence that was closely followed by a remarkable happening, good or bad. If there was a repetition of that combination, then the omen became established. Omens vary from the sighting of a particular bird in flight to the observation of a comet. The movement of cats, behavior of horses, the way a person laughs, the howling of a dog; these can all be taken as omens and, from them, the possible trend of future events may be gauged.

Thomas Carlyle, in Mrs. C’s Letter (1871), mentions, “. 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.” Also Sir Walter Scott, in Peveril of the Peak (1822), says, “These evil omenings do but point out conclusions … most unlikely to come to pass.” Yet many people do feel that the things omened will come to pass. One definition of the word is “an event or phenomenon believed to be a sign or warning of a future occurrence” (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

The sightings of comets and the experience of eclipses have been taken as signs that the world is coming to an end. At the trial of King Charles I in England in 1649, the head of his staff fell off. Many saw this as an ill omen. Charles was executed on January 30, 1649. William Shakespeare referred to many omens throughout his plays. In Julius Caesar, for example, a Soothsayer warns Caesar about the Ides of March, presumably based on omens he had observed. There is also a scene (Act 1, Sc. ii) where Casca meets with Cicero in a street, late at night, with a storm raging. Casca comments on the many strange omens that are occurring, “Against the Capitol I met a lion, who glared upon me and went surly by, without annoying me. And there were drawn upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, transformed with their fear; who swore they saw men, all in fire, walk up and down the streets. And yesterday the bird of night [owl] did sit, even at noon day, upon the market place, hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies do so conjointly meet, let not men say, ‘These are their reasons; they are natural.’ For I believe they are portentous things unto the climate that they point upon.” There were many more omens and portents, including dreams and the examination of the entrails of sacrificed animals, before Caesar was assassinated. As Calpurnia says in the play, “When beggars die there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”

In Greece, there are many traditional portents of good and evil. For a potential bride to see a weasel is the worst omen. The weasel, it is said, was once a young girl about to be married (the name means “little bride"). In some way she was robbed of her happiness and transformed into an animal. To see a snake, however, is a very good omen. The spilling of oil is an evil omen but the spilling of wine is good. The upsetting of water is also good, especially if it happens while on a journey. If the logs of the fire crackle it means that good news is coming. But if sparks should fly, then trouble may be expected. The spluttering of a candle flame or lamp flame is also unlucky.

Sources:

Buckland, Raymond: The Fortune–Telling Book: The Encyclopedia of Divination and Soothsaying. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2004Lawson, John Cuthbert: Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion. New York: University Books, 1964Oxford English Dictionary, The. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989Shakespeare, William: The Complete Works. London: Odhams Press, 1938

Omen

See also Prophecy.Amasis’ring discarded ring turns up predicting Polycrates’ death. [Gk. Hist.: Benét, 28]handwriting on the wallDaniel interprets supernatural sign as Belshazzar’s doom. [O.T.: Daniel 5:25–28]humaoriental bird; every head over which its shadow passes was believed destined to wear a crown. [Ind. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 472]Ides of March15 March; prophesied as fateful for Caesar. [Br. Lit.: Julius Caesar]merrowIrish mermaid; her appearance signifies coming storms. [Irish Folklore: Briggs, 290–294]Mother Carey’s chickensstormy petrels; believed by sailors to be harbingers of storms. [Marine Folklore: Wheeler, 251]ravenoften presages death or catastrophe. [Animal Folklore: Jobes, 213]waffwraith whose appearance portends death. [Br. Folklore: Briggs, 425]white-winged crowbird of evil omen. [Chinese Folklore: Jobes, 388]Wotan’s ravensof misfortune, usually fatal. [Ger. Opera: Wagner, Götterdämmerung, Westerman, 245]

omen

o·men

omen

o•men

Omen

omen

omen

omen

omen

omen

bad omen

good omen

omen

omen,

Omen

Omen

Omen

OMEN

omen

Synonyms for omen

noun portent

Synonyms

Synonyms for omen

noun a phenomenon that serves as a sign or warning of some future good or evil

Synonyms

Synonyms for omen

noun a sign of something about to happen

Synonyms

Related Words

verb indicate by signs

Synonyms

Related Words