augury

(ô'gyə-rē)
n., pl., -ries.

1. The art, ability, or practice of auguring; divination.
2. A sign of something coming; an omen: "The chartist buys when the auguries look favorable and sells on bad omens" (Burton G. Malkiel).

[Middle English augurie, from Old French, from Latin augurium, from augur, augur. See augur.]

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noun

A phenomenon that serves as a sign or warning of some future good or evil: forerunner, foretoken, omen, portent, prefigurement, presage, prognostic, prognostication, sign. Idioms: writinghandwritingon the wall. See foresight, warn/invite.

augury and auspices, divination by observing the habits of birds. The terms ‘auguries’ and ‘auspices’ were used interchangeably. Augury was as common for the Greeks as for the Romans, but it was the latter who made it a complete system governed by fixed rules and practised by a college of augurs (elected for life) who alone were authorized to ‘take the auspices’, that is, read the signs. The function of augury was not to reveal the future but to tell whether or not a proposed course of action had the approval of the gods. Signs might be offered unsolicited, but often were deliberately sought; of the latter the best-known example is the observation by the Romans of sacred chickens, carried by armies in the field. Food was given to these birds and if they ate it greedily so as to drop some from their mouths it was a good sign. When, before the sea-battle of Drepanum between Rome and Carthage in 249 BC, they refused to eat, the Roman admiral threw them overboard, saying, ‘Then let them drink’; the Romans were, of course, defeated. If wild birds were to be observed, the augur indicated with a wand the part of the sky to be observed (the templum, the word also used for an area of ground consecrated for the augur's use), dividing it into left and right, front and back regions. He would stand facing south or east; the significance of a bird's flight or cry varied according to the direction from which it came. The auspices were taken before any important military or public event (and in early times before many private events too), but the officer responsible had the power to reject the advice of the augurs if he so pleased: see above. Another notable occasion was the morning of the battle of Lake Trasimene in 217 BC, during the Second Punic War, when the consul C. Flaminius ignored the auguries with disastrous results. Cicero, although an augur himself, wrote De divinatione (‘on divination’) to disprove the possibility of divination. The emperor Augustus seems to have believed in the auspices. See also DIVINATION and HARUSPICES.

IN BRIEF: The practice of reading signs or omens.

Linda delved into augury before making plans for her vacation.

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For a list of words related to augury, see:

• Rites, Practices, Spells, and Symbols - augury: divination by omens and signs

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See words rhyming with "augury."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Augury.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - varsel, tegn, spådomskunst

Nederlands (Dutch)
voorteken, voorspelling, wichelarij, waarzeggerij

Français (French)
n. - présage, augure, prédiction

Deutsch (German)
n. - Vorzeichen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - οιωνός, οιωνοσκοπία, μαντική

Italiano (Italian)
augurio, presagio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - presságio (m)

Русский (Russian)
предзнаменование, предчувствие

Español (Spanish)
n. - augurio, presagio, anuncio, pronóstico

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tecken, omen

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
占兆, 占卜, 预言

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 占兆, 占卜, 預言

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 점, 조짐

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 占い判断, 卜占, 前兆

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عرافه, كهانه, بشير, نذير‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סימן לעתיד, נבואה, מתן פירוש לסימנים‬

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