augurs

Noun

augur (plural augurs)

1. A diviner who foretells events by the behaviour of birds or other animals, or by signs derived from celestial phenomena, or unusual occurrences.
   • Augur of ill, whoſe tongue was never found / Without a prieſtly curſe, or boding ſound; [...]a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The First Book of Homer’s Ilias”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760...
2. (Ancient-Rome) An official who interpreted omens before the start of public events.
   • It was an ancient tradition, that when the Capitol was founded by one of the Roman kings, the god Terminus (who presided over boundaries, and was represented, according to the fashion of that age, by a large stone) alone, among all the inferior deities, refused to yield his place to Jupiter...1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I, ch 1-pt ii

See all 3 meanings of augur