After lunch, I did the usual dull-minded wander across the parking lot to my destination-vehicle, and reached down to grab the door handle, and, whoa!, something moved in my peripheral vision! I suppose if I were an Ancient One, I might wonder if a visitation from this Green Insect Being were an omen, a sign, a portent.
If so, of what? I wait….
Portent, that’s an interesting word. Its meaning, back in the sixteenth century when it began to be used (according to the Apple Dictionary), it was from the Latin verb portendere and noun portentum, meaning omen or token. As used early on in English, however, it meant an exceptional or wonderful person or thing. The dictionary’s example: what portent can be greater than a pious notary? [Cracked me up!]