Other forms: betokens, betokened
To betoken is to be a sign of what is to come. Betoken trouble, betokening a change, it betokens nothing good.
It is literary and old-fashioned, and it always looks forward — a thing betokens what is coming rather than what is. Note token beneath it, and the be- prefix, which turns a noun into a verb as in befriend and bewitch.
1verbbetokenTo be a sign of what is to come.
“The dark clouds over the hills betokened a storm.”
betoken is a signifying.
Also accepted in games: bode
Old English betacnian is be- plus tacn, a sign. Token is the same sign.
Proto-West Germanic
*bitaiknijan
Old English
betācnian — to betoken, signify, designate
Middle English
bitoknen
English, today
betoken
From Middle English bitoknen, bitacnen, from Old English betācnian (“to betoken, signify, designate”), from Proto-West Germanic bitaiknijan. Equivalent to be + token. Cognate with Dutch betekenen (“to mean, signify”), German bezeichnen (“to call, designate”), Swedish beteckna (“to represent, designate, indicate”) and Danish betegne (“to represent, designate, indicate”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA