Omen - a word and its meaning

Abstract

Words are always coined, and the people accept them as per the circumstances. Some of those words are used in the literature. Many words which are used in literature become obsolete. Even so, some words are still used by the people. In that sense, the word nimittam, which means Omen, has been used by people from ancient times. This research aims to explore the meaning of the word with its different terminologies. Books such as Tolkappiyam, Silappathikaram, Perungkatai and Kambaramayanam mention that the purpose of the word is to say what will happen in the future. The word is also used in other forms such as Nimittu, nimittiyam. Cakuṉam, puḷ, kuṟi, cōtiṭam, ētu, cōtaṉam are the synonyms of this word. Duraisamy Pillai comments, the word sakunam is derived from sokinam. It can be seen that the word sakunam refers first to the bird and then to the sakunam associated with the bird and all sorts of sakunam (omens) throughout the time. Bull, another word, is used by the people of ancient times. This word denotes the name of this bird, which has been mentioned in ancient Tamil literature such as Naṟṟiṇai, puṟanāṉūṟu, perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai, malaipaṭukaṭām Later, like the word sakunam, it denotes the signs of bird, after some time, it is named for all kinds of signs. One can see the use of the word in Kalingathu Parani. Thus this article tries to explore the various terms which mean nimittam.