auspicium

Latin

Etymology

From auspex (“augur, priest”) +‎ -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [au̯sˈpɪ.ki.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [au̯sˈpiː.t͡ʃi.um]

Noun

auspicium n (genitive auspiciī or auspicī); second declension

1. divination, augury (by watching birds)
2. auspices
3. (transferred) (plural) power, authority
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.102-103:

     “Commūnem hunc ergō populum paribusque regāmus / auspiciīs [...].”

     “Therefore let us rule this nation jointly and with equal authority.”
     (Understood literally, Juno is proposing that she and Venus will jointly control the divine auspices interpreted at Carthage.)

4. sign, indication

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	auspicium	auspicia
genitive	auspiciī auspicī1	auspiciōrum
dative	auspiciō	auspiciīs
accusative	auspicium	auspicia
ablative	auspiciō	auspiciīs
vocative	auspicium	auspicia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• Italian: auspicio
• Catalan: auspici
• English: auspice
• French: auspices
• Galician: auspicio
• German: Auspizien
• → Portuguese: auspício
• Romanian: auspiciu
• Spanish: auspicio

References

• “auspicium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “auspicium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• auspicium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “auspicium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “auspicium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin