Ominous means giving the feeling that something bad is coming. An ominous silence, ominous clouds, ominously quiet.
It is about the sign rather than the event, so an ominous silence has not hurt anybody yet. The omen inside it could once be good or bad, and the word has narrowed to the bad kind alone, which is what usually happens to such words.
1adjectiveominousGiving the feeling that something bad is coming.
“Dark, ominous clouds gathered over the hills as we started the climb.”
ominous is a quality.
Latin ominosus comes from omen, a sign or foretoken, which could be favourable or unfavourable.
itc-ola
osmen
Latin
ōminōsus — full of foreboding
English, today
ominous
Built from
From Latin ōminōsus (“full of foreboding”), from ōmen (“forbidden fruit, omen”), from itc-ola osmen, of uncertain origin, with many origins proposed (see ōmen).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA