ostent

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See also: ôtent

English

Etymology 1

From Middle French ostenter (“to make an ostentatious display of”), or directly from its etymon Latin ostentāre, 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

Verb

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

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

Pronunciation

Noun

ostent (plural ostents)

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

Etymology 3

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.

The plural form ostenta is from Latin ostenta.

Pronunciation

Noun

ostent (plural ostents or ostenta)

  1. (archaic, rare) A portent, a token.
    • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. , London: Rich Field , for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, , volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, , 1857, →OCLC:
      We ask'd of God that some ostent might clear / Our cloudy business, who gave us sign.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:
      Latinus, frighted with this dire ostent, / For counsel to his father Faunus went,

Etymology 4

Noun

ostent (plural ostents)

  1. (obsolete) A minute (60 seconds).
Usage notes
  • Distinguished in medieval times from the "minute" that was one tenth of an hour, or six modern minutes.

References

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

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