Augurとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from Latin augur, of uncertain origin; akin to augurō (“interpret omens”).

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɔːɡə/
• (Standard Southern British, Australia, New Zealand) IPA: /ˈoːɡə/
• (米国発音)
  • (without the cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈɔɡɚ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈɑɡɚ/
• (Scotland) IPA: /ˈɔɡəɾ/
• 韻: -ɔːɡə(ɹ)
• Homophone: auger; see also AGA

名詞

augur (plural augurs)

1. A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or by signs derived from celestial phenomena, or unusual occurrences.
   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 420:

     Augur of ill, whoſe tongue was never found / Without a prieſtly curſe, or boding ſound; [...]

2. (Ancient Rome) An official who interpreted omens before the start of public events.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I, ch 1-pt ii:

     It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented, according to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter himself. A favorable inference was drawn from his obstinacy, which was interpreted by the augurs as a sure presage that the boundaries of the Roman power would never recede.

派生語

動詞

augur (third-person singular simple present augurs, present participle auguring, simple past and past participle augured)

1. To foretell events; to exhibit signs of future events; to indicate a favorable or an unfavorable outcome.

   Every circumstance augured success.

   Recent events do not augur well for world peace.

   • 1959 June, O. S. Nock, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 408:

     The train was well filled, with quite an amount of intermediate business; but station staff and passengers alike seemed ready enough to "look lively", and the result was a general "slickness" in working that augers well for the future.

   • 2024 May 9, Ned Temko, “On rare visit, Xi Jinping tries to rescue China’s relationship with Europe”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     But there, too, the meteorological omens augured ill.

   • 2024 September 20, Mark Sherman, “Supreme Court justices have a job for life. But some left the court to make their lasting mark”, in AP News:

     Whether term limits would augur a return of justices with broader experience in public life is debatable.

   • 2025 June 16, Eric Bulson, “Yes I Will Read ‘Ulysses’ Yes”, in The Atlantic‎, →ISSN:

     As Ellmann was quietly assembling materials for his biography, specialization was on the rise in American literature departments, as the critic Erich Auerbach warned, auguring the decline of a general humanities education.

派生語

• augural
• augury

使用する際の注意点

Not to be confused with auger.

Further reading

• “augur”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “augur”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “augur”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

語源

According to De Vaan, Proto-Italic *augos ~ *augezos n, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwgos; compare Sanskrit ओजस् (ojas, “strength, vigor”), Avestan 𐬀𐬊𐬘𐬀𐬵 (aojah), 𐬀𐬊𐬔𐬀𐬵 (aogah, “might, power”) as well as Latin augeō (“to increase”), augustus (< *augos-tos). The noun *augos would have developed from "reinforcement" to "(one) who makes grow". However, it is not clear why the term is not inflected like other neuter s-stems. The expected declension pattern, if the aforementioned theory is accepted, would be *augus ~ *augeris. The term might have leveled the e/o-variation in the suffix, yielding *augos ~ *augoris. There is attestation of a similar development in fulgur ~ fulguris, though there is attestation for the unassimilated stem fulgor-, whereas there is no evidence for augor-. It is also unclear how a neuter verbal abstract become a masculine noun denoting the role of a religious official. There are few other parallels for original neuter s-stems coming to refer to animate entities, and all of them are either doubtful or have special explanations. For instance, Venus f reflects Proto-Indo-European *wénh₁-os ~ *wénh₁-es-os, though it specifically refers to a goddess who functioned as the personification of love, and its case is therefore not an exact match for the situation of augus.

発音

• (Classical Latin) IPA: [ˈau̯.ɡʊr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: [ˈaːu̯.ɡur]

名詞

augur m or f (genitive auguris); third declension

1. augur (priest, diviner, or soothsayer, one who foretold the future in part by interpreting the song and flight of birds)
   • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 1.179–180:

     ad prīmam vōcem timidās advertitis aurēs,
     et vīsam prīmum cōnsulit augur avem.

     You turn timid ears to the first word spoken,
     and the augur interprets the first bird seen.

語形変化

Third-declension noun.

同意語

• auspex

等位語

• haruspex, auspex

派生語

• augurium
• augurō

派生した語

参照

Further reading

• “augur”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “augur”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “augur”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “augur”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “augur”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “augur”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.