augury

augur +‎ -y, or from Old French augurie, from Latin augurium.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔː.ɡjʊ.ɹi/

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augury (countable and uncountable, plural auguries)

1. A divination based on the appearance and behaviour of animals.
2. (by extension) An omen or prediction; a foreboding; a prophecy.
   • Edgar Allan Poe

     In Wordsworth's first preludings there is but a dim foreboding of the creator of an era. From Southey's early poems, a safer augury might have been drawn.

3. An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 2, in Well Tackled!‎:

     Evidently he did not mean to be a mere figurehead, but to carry on the old tradition of Wilsthorpe's; and that was considered to be a good thing in itself and an augury for future prosperity.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:augury.

• See also Thesaurus:omen

• augur