the.com/omen
a coincidence that demanded to be taken personally.
means a sign or event regarded as a warning or prophecy of something good or bad to come.
from Straight from Latin 'omen,' a word for a prophetic sign — though the Romans themselves weren't quite sure where it came from. One old guess links it to 'audire,' to hear, hinting at an omen as something whispered by the gods; that connection is uncertain. The Romans took omens very seriously, employing augurs to read the flight of birds and the entrails of sacrificed animals, and from that same root grew 'ominous' — the omen's gloomier cousin.
- Latin roots
- From omen, a sign read in nature
- good or bad
- Originally neutral, could foretell either fate
- bird business
- Romans read omens in flight patterns of birds
- state job
- Augurs were official priests paid to interpret signs
- abominable link
- Abominable means literally away from a bad omen
halley's comet — appeared in 1066 before the norman conquest, interpreted as an omen by medieval europeans
mount vesuvius eruption — 79 ad eruption in pompeii preceded by tremors romans saw as omens from the gods
chicago black cat — crossed path of game 6, 1945 world series, considered bad omen for cubs