American Heritage Dictionary portent:
- An indication of something important or calamitous about to occur; an omen.
- Prophetic or threatening significance. "signs full of portent."
- Something amazing or marvelous; a prodigy.
Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; in an ill sense
Omens and Auguries are alive and well in every culture I can think of, seemingly one of those universals among Homo sapiens (and who knows, maybe even older... what would be archaeological evidence?).
"By the pricking of my thumbs/ Something wicked this way comes":
Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 1), spoken by the Second Witch as she senses Macbeth approaching.
My curiosity about anticipating the future was whetted in Sarawak by aspects of Iban culture and world model(s) that were clearly matters of augury and omens in the adat of Iban life. Consider:
The Origin Of Iban Omen Bird from Iban Cultural Heritage