Propitious means offering good conditions for success. A propitious moment, propitious circumstances, less than propitious.
It is formal and slightly old-fashioned, and it belongs to timing above all. The Latin sense was favourable in the way a god is when properly appeased, which is where propitiate comes from.
1adjectivepropitiousOffering good conditions for success.
“With clear skies and calm seas, the conditions were propitious for the voyage.”
propitious is a quality.
Latin propitius means favourable or well-disposed, from the language of appeasing a god.
Proto-Indo-European
*-kʷe
Latin
propitius — favorable, well-disposed, kind
Old French
propicius
English, today
propitious
From Anglo-Norman - and Old French propicius, from Latin propitius (“favorable, well-disposed, kind”). Compare French propice, Portuguese propício and Spanish propicio.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA