augur

augur

From Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day by Merriam-Webster

May 5, 2026 · 2 min

About this episode

This episode discusses the word 'augur', its meaning, usage, and historical context.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for May 5, 2026 is: augur • \AW-gur\  • verb To augur is to show or suggest, especially from omens, that something might happen in the future. Used most often in formal speech or writing, augur is often followed by an adverb, such as well . // The downturn augurs badly for the success of the business. See the entry > Examples: "Last March, almost exactly two decades after his ghost church appeared at the Whitney , [Banks] Violette put another destroyed structure on display: the canopy of an abandoned gas station split in half. ... This wreckage could only augur doom." — Rachel Wetzler, Artforum , 1 Feb. 2026 Did you know? In ancient Rome, augurs were official diviners whose function it was to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. We doubt the Romans predicted that their verb augurāre , meaning "to foretell by augury," would evolve into an English verb meaning " presage or foretell," but in retrospect, augur 's path must have been in the stars.

People in this episode

Host: Merriam-Webster

Topics covered

  • language
  • vocabulary
  • etymology
  • omens
  • formal speech

Keywords

  • augur
  • foretell
  • omens
  • language
  • vocabulary
  • etymology
  • formal speech

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Artforum

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