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Sunday December 11, 2005

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auspicious \aw-SPISH-uhs\ , adjective:
1. Giving promise of success, prosperity, or happiness; predicting good; as, "an auspicious beginning."
2. Prosperous; fortunate; as, "auspicious years."

But as Saturday fell on a very auspicious day in the Chinese calendar, every hotel in Nanjing was booked for weddings.
-- Seth Kaplan with Craig S. Smith, "Adventure the Chinese Way", New York Times, May 3, 2000

The hard truth of fire management is that the conditions most auspicious for a "prescribed burn," in which dangerously dense pine forests are purged of combustible debris, are not so very different from those that can lead to a devastating wildfire.
-- George Johnson, "Planned Blaze Close Cousin of a Wildfire", New York Times, May 12, 2000

The priest studied the birth stars of husband and wife, and chose the most auspicious date for a groundbreaking ceremony, a chilly day in April.
-- Alastair Gordon, "Raj Style Takes the Silk Road to the Suburbs", New York Times, January 27, 2000

Auspicious derives from Latin auspicium, "an omen, a sign," from auspex, "one who observes or looks at the habits of birds for purposes of divination," from avis, "bird" + specere, "to look, to look at."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for auspicious

 

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