# omen
## English
### Etymology

From Latin ōmen (“foreboding, omen”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈəʊmən/
* (US) IPA: /ˈoʊmən/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊmən

### Noun

omen (plural omens)
* Something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury.
    The ghost's appearance was an ill omen.
    A rise in imports might be an omen of economic recovery.
    The egg has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen.
** 1856, Gustave Flaubert, chapter 10, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary, Part 3: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.
* A thing of prophetic significance.
    A sign of ill omen.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* absit omen
* bird of ill omen
* omenic

#### Related terms

* ominous
* abomination

#### Collocations

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

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

omen (third-person singular simple present omens, present participle omening, simple past and past participle omened)
* (transitive) To be an omen of.
* (intransitive) 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

### Further reading

* “omen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “omen”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Nemo, meno-, mone, Meno, nemo, Nome, Moen, nome, meon, Meon, Mone, Emon, NEMO

## Basque
### Etymology

Uncertain, perhaps from Latin ōmen (“omen”), but the semantic shift is problematic. If it's not a borrowing, from something akin to Proto-Basque *oben.

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)
* IPA: /omen/ [o.mẽn]
* Rhymes: -omen, -en
* Hyphenation: o‧men

### Noun

omen inan
* fame, renown

#### Derived terms

* omenaldi (“homage”)
* omendu (“to pay homage”)
* omenez
* omenezko
* omengarri
* omentsu

### Particle

omen
* reportedly, apparently, I think
    Eguraldia hobetu omen da. ― It seems like the weather has improved.

#### Usage notes

In Basque, yes/no questions require a modal particle. The most common one is al, which introduces no additional meaning. For tentative questions, ote is used. The related particle omen indicates hearsay, but it's not used to form direct questions. All these particles are placed immediately before (auxiliary) verb forms.

#### Derived terms

* omenka

### References

* ↑ “omen” in Etymological Dictionary of Basque by R. L. Trask, sussex.ac.uk

### Further reading

* “omen”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
* “omen”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

## Latin
### Etymology

From Old Latin osmen, of uncertain origin, with many origins proposed:
* Ancient authors derived it from ōs (“mouth”).
* Derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to see, perceive”) (whence audiō) or from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“to perceive”), whence Ancient Greek οἴομαι (oíomai, “I think, believe, suppose”).
* Per Beneviste and Oettinger, connected to Hittite [script needed] (hā-ᶻᶦ, “to believe, trust”) via a supposed Proto-Indo-European *h₂e/oh₃-s-mn (“trust”). De Vaan considers this semantically unconvincing.
* Per De Vaan (who doubts the authenticity of the Old Latin form osmen), most likely from Proto-Italic *okʷsmn- (“sighting, omen”), from an s-present form of Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see; eye”) + *-men (whence -men).
* An alternative theory by Meier-Brügger derives the word from Proto-Indo-European *Hoǵ-smen (“speech, what was predicted”), from an o-grade of Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵ- (“to say”) (whence aiō (“id”)). This is semantically attractive, but requires the existence of the otherwise unattested-in-Latin o-grade of aiō, as well as an atypical formation of a smen-derivative from the Proto-Indo-European perfect *He-Hoǵ-.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈoː.men/, [ˈoːmɛn]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈo.men/, [ˈɔːmen]

### Noun

ōmen n (genitive ōminis); third declension
* omen, sign, harbinger, portent, token (an object or occurrence believed to portend or predict a future event, circumstance, situation, or state of affairs)
    Synonym: ōrāculum
** 45 BCE, Cicero, De divinatione 1.46.104: […] Quod omen res consecuta est; ipsa enim brevi mortua est, virgo autem nupsit, cui Caecilia nupta fuerat. Haec posse contemni vel etiam rideri praeclare intellego, sed id ipsum est deos non putare, quae ab iis significantur, contemnere. […] And this was a sign of what came to pass, for in a short time Caecilia died and the girl married her aunt's husband. I realize perfectly well that these omens may be lightly regarded and even be laughed at, but to make light of signs sent by the gods is nothing less than to disbelieve in the existence of the gods.
** ~101 CE, Juvenal, Satires 4.123–125:non cedit Veiiento, sed ut fanaticus oestro / percussus, Bellona, tuo diuinat et "ingens / omen habes" inquit "magni clarique triumphi..."Veiientus yields not, but as one inspired by the maddening / influence of the goddess Bellona, prophesies. "A mighty / token this you possess" he says "of some great and illustrious triumph..."

#### Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

#### Derived terms

* ōminor
* ōminōsus
* nōmen est ōmen

#### Related terms

* praenūntiō

#### Descendants

* → Dutch: omen
* → English: omen
* → German: Omen
* → Norwegian:
** Norwegian Bokmål: omen
** Norwegian Nynorsk: omen

### 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 with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* omen in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (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
* ↑ John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “omen”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
* ↑ Watkins, Calvert (1985) The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
* 1 2 3 De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ōmen”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 427-8

## 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)
* an omen

### References

* “omen” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology 1

From Latin omen.

#### Noun

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

### Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

#### Noun

omen m
* definite singular of om

### References

* “omen” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

## Old Galician-Portuguese
### Noun

omen m (plural omens)
* Alternative form of ome

## Polish
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ōmen. First attested in 1585, originally as a neuter noun.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɔ.mɛn/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɔmɛn
* Syllabification: o‧men

### Noun

omen m inan
* (literary) omen, foreboding
    Synonyms: przepowiednia, wróżba, zapowiedź
    dobry omen ― good omen
    zły omen ― bad/ill omen

#### Related terms

* nomen omen

### References

* ↑ Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “omen”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]

### Further reading

* omen in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* omen in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Slovene
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ōmen. First attested in the 19th century.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /òːmɛn/, /óːmɛn/

### Noun

ọ̄men m
* (literary) omen, foreboding

### Further reading

* “omen”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

## Slovincian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Polish amen. Compare Kashubian amen.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɔ.mɛn/
* Rhymes: -ɔmɛn
* Syllabification: o‧men

### Noun

omen m inan (indeclinable)
* (religion) amen

### Further reading

* Lorentz, Friedrich (1908) “ǻu̯mĕn”, in Slovinzisches Wörterbuch‎ (in German), volume 1, Saint Petersburg: ОРЯС ИАН, page 8

## Swedish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin omen.

### Noun

omen n
* an omen
    dåliga omenbad omens

#### See also

* järtecken

### References

* omen in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* omen in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* omen in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)