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hydromancy: msg#00023

culture.language.word-of-the-day

Subject: hydromancy

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The Word of the Day for November 24 is:

hydromancy \HY-druh-man-see\ noun
: divination by the appearance or motion of liquids (as
water)

Example sentence:
The store has a large section of books about hydromancy
and other forms of fortune-telling.

Did you know?
If you've ever encountered a sorceress or a wizard peering
into a "scrying bowl" as part of a movie or a book, you've
witnessed a (fictionalized) version of "hydromancy." The word
has been used since at least the 14th century to describe the
use of water in divination -- examples include predicting the
future by the motion of the tides or contacting spirits using
still water. "Hydromancy" is believed to derive ultimately from
the Greek words for "water" ("hydor") and "divination"
("manteia"); it came to English via the Latin "hydromantia." The
ancient Greeks who relied on hydromancy also gave us the names
for related forms of divination, such as "necromancy" (using the
dead), "pyromancy" (with fire), and even "rhabdomancy," a fancy
and now rare word for "divination with wands or rods."







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