agouro

Agouro is a Portuguese noun meaning an omen or forewarning, especially of misfortune. It refers to a sign—whether natural, behavioral, or dream-related—that portends a negative outcome. In everyday language, a person may describe a certain event or sign as agouro, i.e., a bad omen. The related verb agourar means to portend or warn, and expressions such as dar o agouro or receber o agouro convey giving or receiving such a warning or omen.

The term derives from Latin augurium, through medieval Latin and Old Portuguese, and is linguistically linked to the concept of augury—the interpretation of signs to predict the future. In Portuguese, agouro has specialized sense focusing on negative omens, though it can occasionally appear in broader senses of omen or presage in literary or historical contexts.

Culturally, agouros appear in Portuguese and Brazilian folklore, literature, proverbs, and popular speech as signs believed to foretell events. They are often linked to everyday decisions and superstitions, where unusual occurrences, dreams, or natural phenomena are read as warnings. In academic and descriptive contexts, agouro is treated as a cultural notion about how communities interpret signs and plan responses to perceived forewarnings, rather than as a scientifically validated predictor of outcomes. See also: omen, presage, augury, superstition.