Welcome to OSTENTA.NET
~ Semper Factotal
The Spanish verb
ostentar
means
"to display or flaunt". Ostenta
is the third person
indicative or informal second person imperative of the verb.
English derivatives include "ostentatious" and "ostensible".
The verb is also used in Italian the same way as in Spanish.
The origins of the word
ostenta
are
ancient. The
Etruscan civilization
(1200-550 BCE) predates the Romans on the Italian peninsula.
The Etruscan concept of the world and of life lay in the certainty
of a permanent communication with the gods. The observation of
omens, which were called ostenta,
and their interpretation
were the domain of the augur priests who accepted what were taken to
be exceptional phenomena as signs and explanations, possibly of the
future. When the usual order of the world seems disturbed,
when an abnormal event occurs, it is not a matter of ordinary chance
for a people who attribute all things to the gods. It is a
sign.
Omens as exceptional phenomena had to be
distinguished from merely unusual signs that could recur. The
guidebook for such discrimination was the
ostentaria.
Celestial event displays such as comets and eclipses, the
flight of birds, births of unusual animals or children, appearance
of certain plants and trees among many other phenomena were to be
interpreted as signs that could have positive or negative implications
in the context of Etruscan culture.
Thus is the fascinating ancient pre-Latin basis of
everyday words such as "ostentation" in English, related usages in
Spanish and Italian, and the domain name "ostenta.net". Please
visit this website and its links often -- Jim Duncan |