Word of the Day

: June 2, 2014

augur

verb AW-gur

What It Means

1 : to foretell (something) or to predict the future especially from omens

2 : to give promise of : presage

augur in Context

The state's new first-time home-buyer program augurs a healthy jump in home sales this year.

"The good news for our area in 2015 is that El Niños usually translate into milder winters for those in the northern part of the United States. It also augurs well for drought-stricken California, which will have a 60 percent chance of double its average rainfall. " - The Daily Star (Oneonta, New York), March 12, 2014

Did You Know?

Auguring is what augurs did in ancient Rome. These were official diviners whose function it was, not to foretell the future, but to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. These augurs did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the intestines of sacrificed animals. Nowadays, the intransitive verb sense of "foretell" is often used with an adverb, such as "well," as in our second example above. "Augur" comes from Latin and is related to the Latin verb "augēre," which means "to increase" and is the source of "augment," "auction," and "author."