Auspicious = showing favourable bird-signs, from Latin auspicium (avis bird + specere to look). Two PIE roots: *h₂éwis (bird → aviary, aviation) and *speḱ- (to see → spectacle, inspect, species, spy, episcopal). Pairs with inaugurate — both from Roman bird-divination. 'Under the auspices of' literally means 'under the bird-watching of.'
Conducive to success; favourable; promising; showing signs of future good fortune.
From Latin auspicium ("divination by observing birds"), a compound of avis ("bird") and specere ("to look at, observe"). Avis traces to PIE *h₂éwis ("bird"), preserved in Sanskrit viḥ ("bird"), Greek αἰετός (aietós, "eagle"), and Armenian hav ("chicken"). Specere derives from PIE *speḱ- ("to look, observe"), which yields an enormous family: Latin speciēs ("appearance"), spectrum, spectacle, and via its o-grade, the Germanic
Every time we say something happened 'under the auspices of' an institution, we invoke Roman bird-watching. The phrase means 'under the bird-observations of' — as if the institution were an augur scanning the sky. Shakespeare wrote of 'these inauspicious stars' in Romeo and Juliet — dooming