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July 4, 2014

The origins of the word ostenta are ancient. The Etruscan civilization (1200 BC - 550 BC) 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