Etymograph

English

omen

Omen comes from Latin ōmen ‘foreboding, omen’, and goes back to Old Latin osmen.

  1. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEosmenearlier origin unknown
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōmen‘foreboding, omen’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1856omen

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Old Latinc. 700–75 BCEosmenearlier origin unknown
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEōmen‘foreboding, omen’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1856omen

Earliest quotation: 1856, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary: “Day broke. He saw three black hens asleep in…”

Linked words

through Latin ōmen ‘foreboding, omen’

ominous, abomination, 3 more

Today it means

noun Something which portends or is perceived to portend either a good or evil event or circumstance in the future, or which causes a foreboding; a portent or augury.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old Latin osmen / omen

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