AUGUR
What does "AUGUR" mean?
To portend or foreshadow a future outcome, often by signs.
Meanings
- To be a sign or omen of (something to come); to predict from signs. The early sales figures augur well for the launch.
- A religious official of ancient Rome who interpreted omens, especially the flight of birds. Before any battle, the augur was consulted to read the sky. historical
Did you know?
- In ancient Rome an augur was a priest whose job was to read the gods' will from birds - their flight, their feeding, their cries - and no major public act proceeded without favorable signs.
- When a U.S. president holds an 'inauguration', the word still carries the Roman augurs inside it: to inaugurate originally meant to install someone after the omens, taken from birds, were favorable.
Word origin
From Latin 'augur', a Roman priest who read omens; possibly from 'avis' ('bird') plus a root linked to 'speech' or 'increase', since augurs interpreted the flight and cries of birds.
Remember it
An aUGUR looked Up to read birds; the word still flies inside 'inaUGURation'.
A little poem
The priest tips his head to the morning birds-
their swerve over the rooftops is a sentence.
We still call the start of power their reading.
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Wordplay
- The Roman fortune-teller quit reading birds for a quieter craft. Now he just bores holes in wood - turns out he was always meant to be an auger, not an augur.
What it teaches
We still scan small signs for the shape of the future - the birds have only changed into data.
Quick facts
What does AUGUR mean?
To portend or foreshadow a future outcome, often by signs.
Is AUGUR a valid word?
Yes — AUGUR is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is AUGUR?
AUGUR has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does AUGUR come from?
From Latin 'augur', a Roman priest who read omens; possibly from 'avis' ('bird') plus a root linked to 'speech' or 'increase', since augurs interpreted the flight and cries of birds.
What can AUGUR teach us?
We still scan small signs for the shape of the future - the birds have only changed into data.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.