augury

From augur +‎ -y, or from Middle English augurie, from Old French augurie, from Latin augurium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔː.ɡjʊ.ɹi/

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augury (countable and uncountable, plural auguries)

1. A divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.
2. (by extension) An omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.
   • 1850, James Russell Lowell, The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe/Volume 1/Edgar A. Poe:

     In Wordsworth's first preludings there is but a dim foreboding of the creator of an era. From Southey's early poems, a safer augury might have been drawn.

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     No augury could be hopefuller. The Fates must indeed be hard, the Ordeal severe, the Destiny dark, that could destroy so bright a Spring!

   • 1950 August, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 549:

     Fortunately many of the younger men are keen enough to make a success of their work, and this gives a better augury for the future.

3. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 2, in Well Tackled!‎^[1]:

     Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:augury.

• augur