“Word Nerd Wednesday” is a weekly series that uses language to help us think differently and solve old problems in new ways.
This week’s word is a bit of a head scratcher, but a cool history lesson. It seems in Ancient Rome there were people called “augurs.” Their main job was to augurate – interpret bird behavior for signs of whether or not something you were about to do was looked upon favorably by the gods. (Augury was a specialty within the Roman priesthood.)
An augur was brought in before any big decision was made, public or private, including when a new king, magistrate, or other leader was installed. The augury ritual became so tightly tied to the installation ritual that people started using the words interchangeably.
Over the ensuing millennia the omen-reading aspect of the events and the word faded. To inaugurate now means to only to install someone into office or to dedicate something new with a cermony (think champagne bottle on a ship).
We do still have the word “auspicious” – from the same root – which means showing signs that future success is likely (no birds required).
