What does augury mean?

Definitions for augury
ˈɔ gyə riau·gu·ry

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word augury.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. augury, sign, foretoken, preindicationnoun

    an event that is experienced as indicating important things to come

    "he hoped it was an augury"; "it was a sign from God"

Wiktionary

  1. augurynoun

    A divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.

  2. augurynoun

    An omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.

  3. augurynoun

    An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.

  4. Etymology: or from augurie, from augurium.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Augurynoun

    Etymology: augurium, Lat.

    The winds are chang’d, your friends from danger free,
    Or I renounce my skill in augury. John Dryden, Æneid.

    She knew by augury divine,
    Venus would fail in her design. Jonathan Swift.

    The goddess has such an aversion to ye, that you are particularly excluded out of all auguries. Roger L'Estrange.

    Thy face and thy behaviour,
    Which, if my augury deceive me not,
    Witness good breeding. William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona.

    What if this death, which is for him design’d,
    Had been your doom (far be that augury! )
    And you not, Aurengzebe, condemn’d to die. Dryden.

    The pow’rs we both invoke,
    To you, and yours, and mine, propitious be,
    And firm our purpose with an augury. John Dryden, Æneid.

Wikipedia

  1. Augury

    Augury is the practice from ancient Roman religion of interpreting omens from the observed behavior of birds. When the individual, known as the augur, interpreted these signs, it is referred to as "taking the auspices". "Auspices" (Latin auspicium) literally means "looking at birds", and Latin auspex, another word for "augur", literally means "one who looks at birds". Depending upon the birds, the auspices from the gods could be favorable or unfavorable (auspicious or inauspicious). Sometimes politically motivated augurs would fabricate unfavorable auspices in order to delay certain state functions, such as elections. Pliny the Elder attributes the invention of auspicy to Tiresias the seer of Thebes, the generic model of a seer in the Greco-Roman literary culture.This type of omen reading was already a millennium old in the time of Classical Greece: in the fourteenth-century BC diplomatic correspondence preserved in Egypt called the "Amarna correspondence", the practice was familiar to the king of Alasia in Cyprus who needed an 'eagle diviner' to be sent from Egypt. This earlier, indigenous practice of divining by bird signs, familiar in the figure of Calchas, the bird-diviner to Agamemnon, who led the army (Iliad I.69), was largely replaced by sacrifice-divination through inspection of the sacrificial victim's liver—haruspices—during the Orientalizing period of archaic Greek culture. Plato notes that hepatoscopy held greater prestige than augury by means of birds.One of the most famous auspices is the one which is connected with the founding of Rome. Once the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, arrived at the Palatine Hill, the two argued over where the exact position of the city should be. Romulus was set on building the city upon the Palatine, but Remus wanted to build the city on the strategic and easily fortified Aventine Hill. The two agreed to settle their argument by testing their abilities as augures and by the will of the gods. Each took a seat on the ground apart from one another, and, according to Plutarch, Remus saw six vultures, while Romulus saw twelve. Vultures were pre-eminent in Roman augury, furnishing the strongest signs an augur could receive from a wild bird. They were subject to protective taboos and also called ‘sacred birds’.

ChatGPT

  1. augury

    Augury is the practice or act of interpreting signs or omens, usually believed to predict future events or outcomes. It is often associated with ancient religious and cultural practices.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Augurynoun

    the art or practice of foretelling events by observing the actions of birds, etc.; divination

  2. Augurynoun

    an omen; prediction; prognostication; indication of the future; presage

  3. Augurynoun

    a rite, ceremony, or observation of an augur

  4. Etymology: [L. aucurium.]

Wikidata

  1. Augury

    Augury is a progressive death metal band from Montreal, Canada who released their debut album, Concealed in September 2004 on Galy Records, and a follow-up, Fragmentary Evidence, in July 2009 on Nuclear Blast Records.

Suggested Resources

  1. augury

    Song lyrics by augury -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by augury on the Lyrics.com website.

Mythology

  1. Augury

    (Au′gury). This was a means adopted by the Romans of forming a judgment of futurity by the flight of birds, and the officiating priest was called an augur.

How to pronounce augury?

How to say augury in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of augury in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of augury in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of augury in a Sentence

  1. William Shakespeare:

    Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

  2. Homer:

    The single best augury is to fight for one's country.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

augury#100000#181999#333333

Translations for augury

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"augury." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/augury>.

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