2007-12-21 17:40:03 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
An event regarded as a sign of warning of good or evil.
2007-12-21 17:45:15 · answer #1 · answered by S P 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
omens
Occurrences outside human control, interpreted by communal tradition as foretelling future events (e.g. seeing magpies, hearing an owl hoot); they differ from taboo actions which cause bad luck but can and should be avoided, and also from deliberate attempts to discover the future by divinations and fortune-telling. Some foretell something pleasant: to see a small spider on your hand means money, to find nine peas in one pod means (for a girl) a happy marriage. Others foretell misfortunes, especially death. Such beliefs are extremely widespread in European folk culture, where many English examples can find parallels.
Many omens are drawn from things natural in themselves; they become significant either because the observer is currently in some stressful situation, or retrospectively, once something has happened to ‘fulfil’ them. Others are perceived as supernatural phenomena which only ever appear as warnings— corpse candles, wraiths, the Gabriel Ratchets. Some items straddle the categories: comets were supernatural to some, natural but sinister to others; dreams are, to most people, a natural phenomenon, but some think they can be sent from God, while others regard the ability to ‘dream true’ as a personal psychic power. Underlying the whole concept is a belief in fate (or Providence) rather than mere chance: the future is already fixed, and omens offer glimpses of its pattern.
Most folklore collections and all books on superstitions mix together the things said to cause good or bad luck and the true omens, which merely foretell it; their bald listings give no clue to the emotional importance omens can have in helping people to see a pattern in their lives, come to terms with loss, and so forth.-
2007-12-21 19:10:16 · answer #2 · answered by Jayaraman 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It;'s a series of B Movies...heh sorry couldn't resist.
If you know the future how you came to know it is ....an omen.
A prophecy, an animal that's associated with fore-telling the future, the wind blowing, a glaring look of the "evil eye" are all examples of an omen.
But seriously, if you see, smell, hear, taste, feel something that makes you feel negitively that is an omen. As you are catching a sign of something the future is trying to tell you.
catching the positive concept is called phrophecy.
2007-12-21 17:54:50 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Say that a mining company is working on this place to dig up for gold. But they are using harmful chemicals and people are worried it will ruin the land. The company promises to be extra careful.
Weird things start to happen and it seems to be crying out, "Stop before it's too late, before something really bad happens."
People consider that a bad omen. It's going on right now here in my town.
2007-12-21 20:25:38 · answer #4 · answered by Celeritas 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Slang for old men. Example: Me's momz is awayz crashin' at her fogie boi frenz crib. Dey be doin' some mad hangin' wit hiz omen peeps, ah-ite! Wurrrd.
2007-12-21 18:43:24 · answer #5 · answered by Wise Frog 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A phenomenon that serves as a sign or warning of some future good or evil
2007-12-21 18:23:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
something that suggests future events, usually of a spiritual nature.
2007-12-21 17:47:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋