Other forms: auguries
Augury is reading signs, often in birds, to predict events. A good augury, the augury was bad, practise augury.
Roman augurs watched the flight and feeding of birds before public business, and no major decision was taken against the signs — which made the practice a political instrument as much as a religious one. The words auspicious and inaugurate both come from this. Note augur, the person who did it.
1nounauguryReading signs, often in birds, to predict events.
“Before the battle, the priests watched the birds overhead, and their augury promised victory.”
augury is a form of divination.
Latin augurium comes from augur, a diviner who read the flight of birds. Inaugurate and auspicious come from the same practice.
Latin
augurium
Old French
augurie
Middle English
augurie
English, today
augury
From augur + y, or from Middle English augurie, from Old French augurie, from Latin augurium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA