absit omen

Related to absit omen: portents

absit omen

(ˈæbsɪt ˈəʊmɛn)

may the presentiment not become real or take place

[literally: may the (evil) omen be absent]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

absit omen

A Latin phrase meaning may there be no ill omen, used to express a wish that something bad that has been mentioned will not actually happen.

References in periodicals archive ?

In the first couple of hundred years A.D., the Romans responded to a sneeze with Absit omen, "May the omen come to nothing," or with some version of Salus, 'Health.' A character in Apuleius's Metamorphoses (book 9, chapter 41) entreats health for his wife after a sneeze "in the customary words" (Solito sermone salutem ei fuerat imprecatus), but these customary words are not given.

The sneeze: more than just ah-choo and bless you

Absit omen! Though not a Kurd, he too rules through his tribe with the added amenities of modern civilisation, poison gas for the Kurds.