Wiktionary

ostent

See also: ôtent

English

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Etymology 1

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From Middle French ostenter (“to make an ostentatious display of”), or directly from its etymon Latin ostentāre,[1] present active infinitive of ostentō (“to exhibit, present, show; to show off”), frequentative of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”), from ob- (prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) + tendō (“to extend, stretch; to distend”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tend- (“to extend, stretch”)).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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ostent (third-person singular simple present ostents, present participle ostenting, simple past and past participle ostented)

  1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To make an ambitious display of; to exhibit or show boastingly; to ostentate.

Etymology 2

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From Latin ostentus (“a display, exhibition, show”), from ostendere, present active infinitive of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ostent (plural ostents)

  1. (archaic, rare) A display, an exhibition; an appearance, a manifestation.
  2. A boastful, ostentatious display or exhibition.

Etymology 3

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From Middle French ostente (“amazing or marvellous thing; prodigy, wonder”) or directly from its etymon Latin ostentum (“portent”), from ostendere, present active infinitive of ostendō (“to exhibit, show”); see further at etymology 1.[3]

The plural form ostenta is from Latin ostenta.[3]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ostent (plural ostents or ostenta)

  1. (archaic, rare) A portent, a token.

Etymology 4

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Perhaps from Latin ostentum.

Noun

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ostent (plural ostents)

  1. (obsolete or historical) One sixtieth of an hour: a minute (60 seconds).
    • 1926 [????], Roger Bacon, Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi..., page 291:
      […] one would be inclined to suspect some confusion in Bede's information, seeing that 40 moments and 60 ostents both are equal to an hour. I cannot find an example of the use of ostentum as a measure of time before Bede, and it is first used as one-sixtieth of an hour in 978 A.D. by Alcuin, who knows a double use.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2010 November 1, Samuel L. Macey, The Dynamics of Progress: Time, Method, and Measure, University of Georgia Press, →ISBN, page 17:
      As listed in the Oxford English Dictionary under atom, the hour in the table of Papias contained either 5 points, 10 minutes, 15 parts, 40 moments, 60 ostents, [or] 480 ounces […]
Usage notes
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  • Distinguished in medieval times from the "minute" that was one tenth of an hour, or six modern minutes.

References

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  1. ^ “† ostent, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2004.
  2. ^ “ostent, n.2”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2004.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “ostent, n.1”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2004.

Anagrams

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