absit omen
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin absit omen (“may what is said not come true”, literally “may omen be absent”).
Pronunciation edit
Interjection edit
absit omen
- (rare) May what is said not come true. [First attested in the late 16th century.][1]
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:God forbid
- 1895 March 18, Henry Labouchere, SUPPLY—NAVY ESTIMATES, 1895–6. Hansard HC Deb vol 31 c.1295
- Now it was very obvious we should require a much stronger Navy in the event of war, say with France and Russia—absit omen—if we were obliged to maintain our flag in the Mediterranean, than if we were to withdraw from the Mediterranean.
- 1908, Edward Harper Parker, chapter XXII, in Ancient China Simplified, Chapman & Hall:
- It was only after the younger branch annexed the elder in 679 that Tsin became powerful and began to expand; and it was only when a policy of "home rule" and disintegration set in, involving the splitting up of Tsin's orthodox power into three royal states of doubtful orthodoxy, that China fell a prey to Ts'in ambition. Absit omen to us.
References edit
- ^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “absit omen”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 9.