ostent

See also: ôtent

English

Etymology 1

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle French ostenter (“to make an ostentatious display of”), or directly from its etymon Latin ostentāre, present active infinitive of ostentō (“to exhibit, present, show; to show off”), frequentative of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch; to distend”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒstɛnt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɑstɛnt/
• Hyphenation: os‧tent

Verb

ostent (third-person singular simple present ostents, present participle ostenting, simple past and past participle ostented)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To make an ambitious display of; to exhibit or show boastingly; to ostentate.

Etymology 2

From Middle French ostente (“amazing or marvellous thing; prodigy, wonder”) or directly from its etymon Latin ostentum (“portent”), from ostendere, present active infinitive of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1.

The plural form ostenta is from Latin ostenta.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒstɛnt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈɑstɛnt/
• Hyphenation: os‧tent

Noun

ostent (plural ostents or ostenta)

1. (archaic, rare) A portent, a token.
   • We asked of God that some ostent might clear / Our cloudy business, who gave us sign. — Chapman.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Etymology 3

From Latin ostentus (“a display, exhibition, show”), from ostendere, present active infinitive of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɒˈstɛnt/
• IPA^(key): /ɑˈstɛnt/, /ə-/
• Hyphenation: os‧tent

Noun

ostent (plural ostents)

1. (archaic, rare) A display, an exhibition; an appearance, a manifestation.
   • Use all the observance of civility / Like one well studied in a sad ostent / To please his grandam — Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
   • 1891, Walt Whitman, “2d Annex. Good-Bye my Fancy: Shakespere-Bacon’s Cipher”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], published 1892, →OCLC, page 412:

     In every object, mountain, tree and star—In every birth and life, / As part of each—evolv'd from each—meaning, behind the ostent, / A mystic cipher waits infolded.

2. A boastful, ostentatious display or exhibition.

Anagrams

• Teston, Tetons, Totnes, notest, teston