Augur definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (19)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun One of a group of ancient Roman religious officials who foretold events by observing and interpreting signs and omens.
noun A seer or prophet; a soothsayer.
transitive verb To predict, especially from signs or omens; foretell. See Synonyms at foretell.

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Century Dictionary (7)

Among the ancient Romans, a functionary whose duty it was to observe and to interpret, according to traditional rules, the auspices, or reputed natural signs concerning future events. These auspices were studied, with a fixed ceremonial, in the following classes of phenomena: (1) signs from the heavens, including thunder and lightining, and other meteorological manifestations; (2) signs from the direction of flight or the various cries of birds; (3) signs from the manner of eating of domestic hens kept for this purpose; (4) signs from the movements and attitudes of animals; (5) evil omens from various fortuitous incidents, such as the fall of any object, the gnawing of a mouse, the creaking of a chair, etc., occurring during the augural ceremonies, or when these were about to begin. The official or public augurs, who constituted a college, probably founded by Numa, were originally three in number. By the time of Tarquin they had been increased to six. After 300 B. C. the number became nine, of whom five must be plebeians. Sulla made the number fifteen; Julius Cæsar, sixteen, not including his own official membership in his character of perpetual chief priest and dictator; and toward the close of the empire the number was still further increased. The augurs wore the sacerdotal prætexta, or toga with a broad purple border, and their distinctive emblem was the curved rod called the lituus, with which they marked out the limits of the templum or boundary within which the omens with which they had to do were to be observed. Before any public business or ceremony was undertaken the augurs decided whether the auspices were propitious, or whether unfavorable omens demanded interruption or delay; they conducted the inauguration or exauguration of priests, temples, and places, such as new settlements, and fixed the times of movable festivals. In the engraving, the figure holds the lituus in his right hand, while one of the sacred fowls appears at his feet.
Hence One who pretends to foretell future events by omens; a soothsayer; a prophet; one who bodes, forebodes, or portends. Augur of ill, whose tongue was never found Without a priestly curse or boding sound. Dryden, Iliad, i. 155.
To prognosticate from signs, omens, or indications; predict; anticipate: with a personal subject. I did augur all this to him beforehand. B. Jonson, Poetaster, i. 1. I augur everything from the approbation the proposal has met with. Sir J. Herschel.

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Examples (50)

I shall have you put into one of these, in which I shall make augur-holes, so that you can have plenty of fresh air. — Life in the Grey Nunnery at Montreal
Bibulus was an augur, and observed the heavens when political manoeuvres were going on which he wished to stop. — Life of Cicero
This follows necessarily from the fundamental principle that the auspicia and the imperium were indissolubly connected; for the augur, of course, never possessed the imperium by virtue of his office. — The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus
Meanwhile Calypso had brought him an augur, and he bored the timbers, and fitted them together, and fastened them with bolts and cross-pieces. — Stories from the Odyssey
This fact is illustrated in the following inscription from Spoletium: "Gaius Torasius Severus, the son of Gaius, of the Horatian tribe, quattuorvir with judicial power, augur, in his own name, and in the name of his son Publius Meclonius Proculus Torasianus, the pontiff, erected (this) on his land (?) — The Common People of Ancient Rome Studies of Roman Life and Literature

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Latin; see aug- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English augur, from Latin augur, earlier auger, of uncertain origin, perhaps from avis, a bird (cf. au-spex and au-cupation), + -gur, connected with garrire, talk, chatter.
= French augurer = Spanish Portuguese augurar = Italian augurare, from Latin augurari; from the noun.

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