Dictionary

oneiromancy en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /-ɹə-/ (General-American)
• /oʊˈnaɪɹoʊˌmæn(t)si/ (General-American)
• /əˈnaɪɹəˌmænsi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /əʊˈnaɪɹəʊ-/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From oneiro- (“dream”) + -mancy (“divination”); compare French onéiromancie, oniromancie.

Meanings

1. (qualifier:divination, uncountable) Divination by the interpretation of dreams.
   • 2. Deductive Oneiromancy / This form of oneiromancy aims to decipher the messages contained in ordinary, everyday dreams, messages thought to presage future events in the life of the dreamer. 1999, Jean-Marie Husser, translated by Jill M. Munro, Dreams and Dream Narratives in the Biblical World (The Biblical Seminar; 63), Sheffield, South Yorkshire: Sheffield Academic Press, →ISBN, page 30:
   • The absence of oneiromancy among the divinatory techniques is justified by the fact that it occupies in Islam a higher place than that of divination in the sphere of religious inspiration. 1979, T. Fahd, “KIHĀNA”, in C[lifford] E[dmund] Bosworth, E[meri J.] van Donzel, B[ernard] Lewis, Ch[arles] Pellat, editors, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, volume V, Leiden: E. J. Brill, →OCLC, fascicules 79–80 (ḴH̱EMS̱H̱IL–ḴIRĀ’A), page 101, column 1:
   • 7. Did Aristotle's attitude to oneiromancy change? / In the foregoing sections we sketched the consistent and lucid oneirology which various indirect sources attribute to Aristotle. 1989, A[braham] P. Bos, “Manteia in Aristotle”, in Cosmic and Meta-cosmic Theology in Aristotle’s Lost Dialogues (Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History; 16), →ISBN, page 164:
2. (broadly, uncountable) The interpretation of dreams.
   • The general tenor of ideas in dreaming is the same as that with which the mind is occupied awake; and thus may be revealed, in dreams, the state of the mind, the secret hopes and wishes, the profoundly hidden thought, and often the circumstances of the dreamer. The knowledge of this fact, and its dextrous application, by an acute observer, with the credulous, compose the art of oneiromancy. 1832, Samuel Jackson, “Of Sleep and Dreams”, in The Principles of Medicine, Founded on the Structure and Functions of the Animal Organism, Philadelphia, Pa.: Carey & Lea, →OCLC, § 2 (Of Dreams), page 306:
3. (countable, qualifier:divination) An act of such divination or dream-interpretation.
   • Finding that I could produce obedience to my silent will in somnambulists to the extent of inducing some to lift the hand to either cheek— […] I resolved to try if I could influence some of my patients to obey me in the performance of a train of actions. This was education, and this I take it requires the high order of patience to bring to the degree of perfection which we have seen exhibited in the oneiromancie of the cook-maid Mlle. Isa Prudence, whose mesmeric education does so much credit to the charming Mlle. Herminie Laurant and her rotund parent. 1847 October, John Ashburner, “IV. On the Silent Influence of the Will. By Dr. Ashburner. Communicated in a Letter to Dr. [John] Elliotson.”, in The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism, and Their Applications to Human Welfare, volume V, number XIX, London: Hippolyte Ballière, publisher, […]; Paris: J. B. Ballière, […]; Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, published 1848, →OCLC, page 265:
   • […] Minerva must never be confused with Santa Maria, for all that they occupy the same discursive space, for all that they must occupy the same position in [Sigmund] Freud's account of the mind, any more than The Interpretation of Dreams can be confused with oneiromancies and dream-books of the past, or Freud's account of the Eternal City with [René] Descartes's. 1997, Jacques Lezra, “The Ontology of the Letter in Descartes’s Second Meditation”, in Unspeakable Subjects: The Genealogy of the Event in Early Modern Europe, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 81:

Forms

Deriveds

oneiromancer

Relateds

oneirologist · oneirophrenia · oneiric · oneirodynia · oneiroscopy · oneirophobia · oneironaut · oneirotherapy · oneirogen · oneirology · oneirocriticism · oneirism · oneiroid · oneirocritic

Synonyms

oneiroscopy · oneirocriticism · oneirology

Translations (25)

syc ܦܫܪܐ (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · sh tumačenje snova (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · sh oneiromancija (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · et oneiromantia (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · nci tōnalpōhualiztli (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · pl onejromancja (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · es oniromancia (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · fi unien selittäminen (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · it oniromanzia (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · fr onéiromancie (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · cmn 夢占 (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · pt oniromancia (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · ru онейрома́нтия (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · bg тълкуване на сънища (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · fr oniromancie (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · de Oneiromantie (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · fi oneiromantia (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · nn oneiromanti (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · ca oniromància (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · nl droomuitlegging (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · mk ониромантија (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · ja 夢占い (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · el ονειρομαντεία (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · cmn 解夢 /解梦 (divination by the interpretation of dreams) · ru онейрокрития (divination by the interpretation of dreams)