Dictionary

nigromancy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈnɪɡɹə(ʊ)mansi/ (UK)

Etymology

From Middle English nigromauncy, from Old French nigromancie, nigremance, from Late Latin nigromantia, a blend of niger (“black”) and necromantīa (“necromancy”). Compare black art.

Meanings

1. (countable, historical, uncountable) Necromancy; magic involving death.
   • "I hope thou wilt bring with thee Rebecca, even the scholar of the wise Miriam, whose cures the Gentiles slandered as if they had been wrought by nigromancy." 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
   • But ah! celestial enchantress! the negromancy of thy tyrannical charms hath fettered my faculties with adamantine chains […]. 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • Whoever can deal with these mortal spirits and command them to do his business is proficient in the second species of nigromancy. 1999, Paracelsus, “Astronomia Magna”, in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, transl., Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, page 126:

Forms