The corpus record — Latin

omen

omen · n

a foreboding

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Diadumenus Antoninus 3 · 17.96/10k
Antoninus Geta 2 · 16.26/10k
Clodius Albinus 4 · 14.8/10k
Severus 5 · 11.87/10k
In Eutropium 8 · 11.14/10k
Tacitus 3 · 9.72/10k
Antoninus Pius 2 · 8.91/10k
Helvius Pertinax 2 · 7.69/10k
Panegyricus de quarto consulatu Honorii Augusti 3 · 7.57/10k
Didius Julianus 1 · 6.29/10k
Panegyricus dictus Probino et Olybrio consulibus 1 · 5.88/10k
De Divinatione 14 · 5.09/10k

Densest 12 of 133 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ōmen — Lewis & Short

ōmen (old form osmen), ĭnis, n.omen quod ex ore primum elatum est, osmen dictum, Varr. L. L. 6, § 76 Müll.; cf.: osmen, e quo s extritum, id. ib. 7, § 97: omen velut oremen, quod fit ore augurium, quod non avibus aliove modo fit, Fest. p 195 Müll.; perh. orig. osmen, for ausmen; root audio, that which is heard; hence, in gen..

I Lit., any indication or action regarded as a foreboding, a foreboding, prognostic, sign, token, omen (class.; cf. prodigium): di te deaeque omnes faxint cum istoc omine, with your forebodings, Plaut. Most. 2, 2, 33: neque solum deorum voces Pythagoraei observaverunt, sed etiam hominum, quae vocant omina, Cic. Div. 1, 45. 102: ea quae divina testimonia vocant, ex responsis, oraculis, ominibus, Quint. 5, 7, 35: mi pater, inquit (filiola L. Pauli), Persa (catellus) periit. Tum ille Accipio, inquit, mea filia, omen, I take it as a good omen (of a victory over king Perses), Cic. Div. 1, 46, 103: ingens omen magni triumphi, Juv. 4, 125: qui discedens mecum ita locutus est, ut ejus oratio omen fati videretur, Cic. Phil. 9, 4, 9: quibus Antonius (o di immortales, avertite et detestamini, quaeso hoc omen!) urbem se divisurum esse promisit, id. ib. 4, 4, 10; cf.: atque hoc quidem detestabile omen avertat Juppiter, id. ib. 11, 5, 11; id. Div. 2, 40, 83: exire malis ominibus, id. Sest. 33, 72: quam (rem) tu ipse ominibus optimis prosequeris, id. Fam. 3, 12, 2: cum bonis ominibus incipere, Liv. praef. fin.: i secundo omine, go in God's name, good luck attend you, Hor. C. 3, 11, 50: impios parrae recinentis omen Ducat, id. ib. 3, 27, 1: (Mater juvenem) Votis, ominibus et precibus vocat, id. ib. 4, 5, 13: quod di prius omen in ipsum convertant, Verg. A. 2, 190: quod acceperunt pro omine, Vulg. 3 Reg. 20, 33.—

II Transf.

A A solemn assurance. condition. eā lege atque omine, ut, etc., Ter. And. 1, 2, 29.—

B A solemn usage: hic sceptra accipere et primos attollere fasces Regibus omen erat, Verg. A. 7, 174.—

C Prima omina = nuptiae, as accompanied with auspices, Verg. A. 1, 346; cf.: Contineant nobis omina prima fidem, Prop. 3, 20, 24 (4, 20, 14 M.).

2. Omen — Walde–Hofmann

Omen (alat. osmen; Varro 1.1. 6, 76. 7, 97), -inis n. , Vorzeichen* (seit Plaut., ebenso:öminor.[-5] „wünsche an, weissage" und öminätor „Weissager“, ömindsus seit Plin. epist, öminälis „von übler Vorbedeutung“ Gramm. [in- seit Gell], öminätio » Vorbedeutung* Paul. Fest.; inöminätus ,Üuchbeladen* Hor. [nach &durog, ErnoutMeillet* 705 abüóminor [.0] „verwünsche, verabscheue* seit Hor. [-übilis, -dmentum, -Gtiö, -Osus … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. Omen, p. 1114]

In the wild

omina Historia Augusta, Tacitus 17
omen Historia Augusta, Antoninus Pius 3
omen Statius, Thebais 7.586
omini Historia Augusta, Alexander Severus 60
omen Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 22.1.2
Omine Vergil, Georgicon 4.386

6 of 489 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. Omen (scan p. 485; entry #7846).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. Omen (scan p. 1114; entry #1892). Root candidates: *os-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.