monition

English

WOTD – 26 November 2011

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman monicion, Middle French monicion, and their source, Latin monitiō (“warning, admonition”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məˈnɪʃn̩/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Noun

monition (plural monitions)

1. A caution or warning. [from 14th c.]
   • 1663, Edward Waterhous [i.e., Edward Waterhouse], chapter XIV, in Fortescutus Illustratus; or A Commentary on that Nervous Treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, Written by Sir John Fortescue Knight, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Roycroft for Thomas Dicas […], →OCLC, page 214:

     For if the ſoul of man vvere emancipated by virtue, it vvould not need any regulation or monition, beſides that of its invvard Tribunal; vvhich becauſe ſin does uſurp upon, has ſome relief from thoſe extern adjuments.

   • 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 191:

     I heard something of it, however, and, young as I was, could not help wondering how men who carried the worst passions of life into their retreat, could imagine that retreat was a refuge from the erosions of their evil tempers, the monitions of conscience, and the accusations of God.

   • 1890, Henry James, The Tragic Muse:

     He cherished the usual wise monitions, such as that one was not to make a fool of one's self and that one should not carry on one's technical experiments in public.

2. A legal notification of something. [from 15th c.]
3. A sign of impending danger; an omen. [from 15th c.]
   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson:

     I recognise the first ambiguous monitions of the destiny which afterwards so fully overshadowed me.

Synonyms

• (caution or warning): caution, exhortation, warning

Related terms

• monish
• monishment
• admonish
• admonishment
• admonition
• commonition
• foremonish
• permonish
• premonish
• premonishment
• premonition
• submonish
• submonition

Translations

caution or warning

• Bulgarian: предупреждение (bg) n (predupreždenie)
• Finnish: varoitus (fi)
• German: Mahnung (de) f
• Macedonian: предупредување n (predupreduvanje)
• Russian: предупреждение (ru) n (predupreždenije)
• Serbo-Croatian: savjet (sh) m, opomena (sh) f, upozorenje (sh) n

legal notification

• Russian: уведомление (ru) n (uvedomlenije)

omen

• Bulgarian: поличба (bg) f (poličba)

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

monition f (plural monitions)

1. monition

Further reading

• “monition”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.