hydromancy en · NOUN
Etymology
From French hydromancie or Late Latin hydromantia, from Ancient Greek ὑδρομαντεία (hudromanteía); corresponding to hydro- + -mancy.
Meanings
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(uncountable, usually) Divination by water or other liquid.
Hydromancy, like many other methods of divination, seems to have originated in Babylonia and reached the Greco-Roman world via Egypt, in the first century b.c. or earlier.
1985, Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi, →ISBN:Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]
1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39:Hydromancy is the supposed art of divining by water. The Persians, according to Varro, invented it; Pythagoras and Numa Pompilius made use of it; and we still admire the like wonderful prognosticators.
1797, Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edition:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| hydromanty | alternative | lexicographic | |
| hydromantie | alternative | lexicographic | |
| ydromancy | alternative | lexicographic | |
| hydromancies | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| hydromancie | alternative | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Relateds
Translations (11)
enm idromance (divination by water or other liquid) · fi hydromantia (divination by water or other liquid) · enm idromancie (divination by water or other liquid) · it idromanzia (divination by water or other liquid) · frm hydromancie (divination by water or other liquid) · fr hydromancie (divination by water or other liquid) · fro hydromancie (divination by water or other liquid) · la hydromantīa (divination by water or other liquid) · enm ydromaunce (divination by water or other liquid) · enm ydromance (divination by water or other liquid) · enm hidromancy (divination by water or other liquid)