Today's Word

Augur

AW-ger

Definition

(verb/noun) To predict or indicate a future event; or a religious official in ancient Rome who interpreted omens.

Example

The positive early reviews augur well for the film’s box office success.

Word Origin

Late Middle English: from Latin “augur,” a religious official who observed natural signs to predict the future, possibly from “avis” meaning “bird” + an element related to observing.

Fun Fact

Ancient Roman augurs didn’t just predict the future—they had veto power over government decisions. By declaring the omens unfavorable, an augur could halt senate meetings, cancel elections, or stop armies from marching. They interpreted bird flight patterns, lightning strikes, and animal behavior to divine the gods’ will. The practice became so politically convenient that Cicero famously quipped he was amazed augurs could look at each other without laughing. Today we’ve kept the word but dropped the birds, using “augur” whenever circumstances hint at future outcomes, good or bad.

Previous Words

Efficacious

Today's Word

Efficacious

ef-ih-KAY-shus

Definition

(adjective) Capable of producing the desired result; successful in achieving the intended outcome.

Example

The new treatment proved remarkably efficacious in clinical trials, reducing symptoms in over ninety percent of patients within the first two weeks.

Word Origin

Efficacious derives from the Latin efficax, meaning “powerful” or “effectual,” rooted in efficere — “to bring about” or “to accomplish” — built from ex- (“out”) and facere (“to make” or “to do”). The same root gives us effect, efficient, and efficacy — a family of words all built around the idea of something being done and producing a result. It entered English in the 16th century, used predominantly in medical and philosophical contexts to describe remedies or arguments that actually worked.

Fun Fact

The history of medicine is largely a history of distinguishing the efficacious from the merely plausible. For centuries, bloodletting was considered one of the most efficacious treatments available — practiced by physicians from ancient Greece through the 19th century for conditions ranging from fever to mental illness. George Washington died in 1799 partly as a result of aggressive bloodletting performed by his own doctors in response to a throat infection. It wasn’t until the rise of controlled clinical trials in the 20th century that medicine developed reliable tools for separating treatments that actually worked from treatments that merely seemed to — a distinction efficacious had been waiting two thousand years for medicine to catch up with.

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Augur

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Previous Words

Efficacious

Efficacious

Definition

Example

Word Origin

Efficacious

Penurious

Unctuous

Adumbrate

Lurid