haruspicy
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Latin haruspicium, from haruspex (“diviner of entrails”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns).
Pronunciation
Noun
haruspicy (countable and uncountable, plural haruspicies)
- Divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice.
- 1807, Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, Volume 1, Whitehall, page 238:
- Different kinds of divination, which have passed for sciences, we have had: […] 6. Haruspicy, by inspecting the bowels of animals. […]
- 1825, Horace Smith, Gaieties and Gravities: A Series of Essays, Comic Tales, and Fugitive Vagaries, Volume II, H. Colburn, page 333:
- That our fates should be made dependent upon the stars, planets, and constellations, however preposterous a conceit, at least imparts a dignity to our nature by conjoining earth with Heaven: but that the doom of kings, empires, and individuals, should be regulated […] by the entrails of victims, as analysed by the butchers of Haruspicy […] is an evidence of stupid credulity that levels civilised man to the savage […]
Synonyms
Hyponyms
- hepatomancy, hepatoscopy (haruspicy using livers)
Coordinate terms
- haruspex (a practicer of haruspicy)
Translations
divination by entrails
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