Dictionary

palmistry en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɑ(l)məstɹi/ (General-American)
• /ˈpɑːməstɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈpɑːmɪstɹi/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈpɔ(l)məstɹi/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English palmestrie. Equivalent to palm + -ist + -ry.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand.
   • And those fayre hands within whose louely palmes, Fortune diuineth happie Augurie, Those straightest fingers dealing heauenly almes, Pointed with pur’st of Natures Alcumie, Where loue sits looking in loues palmistrie. 1593, Michael Drayton, Idea the Shepheards Garland, London: Thomas Woodcocke, Eglog 5, page 32:
   • […] but his [God’s] right hand of truth and bountie, does by a Catholike and vnfeigned Palmistrie, shew the blessings prouided for other men! 1626, Barten Holyday, “A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day”, in Three Sermons vpon the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of Our Sauior, London: Nathaniell Butter, page 94:
   • I have seen a gipsy vagabond; she has practised in hackneyed fashion the science of palmistry and told me what such people usually tell. 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 18, in Jane Eyre:
   • Chiromantie is a coniecturyng by beholdyng the lynes, or wryncles of the handes called commonly Palmistry. 1546, Thomas Langley, An Abridgement of the Notable Woorke of Polidore Vergile, London, Book 1, Chapter 18, p. 34b:
   • If you had cared to do so, you could have told the little chap’s fortune from those hands. They were not flat and featureless as you might have expected them to be; already they had all the lines and creases known to palmistry. 1941, H. G. Wells, You Can’t Be Too Careful, London: Secker & Warburg, Book 1, Chapter 1:
   • He must (at least) hold up his hand, By twelve Free-holders to be scan’d, Who by their skill in Palmistry, Will quickly read his Destiny; 1664, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, London, published 1684, Part 2, Canto 3, p. 390:
2. (countable, usually) Telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand. ▸ A book on palmistry; a system of palmistry.
   • 1996, Richard Grossinger, New Moon, Berkeley, CA: Frog, Part 7, Chapter 2, p. 534, To fulfill my graduate language requirement I began reading Michel Foucault’s work on signatures, Les Mots et Les Choses, which joined the meanings of the bestiaries, herbals, palmistries, and physiognomies of olden Europe to the totemic orders of plants and animals among the Arapaho, Xhosa, and Aranda.
   • No living palmistries can spell The bird-runes on the stretched silk of her hand 1977, Peter Scupham, The Hinterland, Oxford University Press, page 27:
   • Both the composition and the transmission of this palmistry must be taken in the context of the medieval Christian world, in which the life on earth was still secondary to the life in the hereafter; even so, texts such as these palmistries do make the unreadable mysteries of one’s relationship to the world seem more familiar and more accessible. 1991 May, Eriko Amino, “A Medieval Palmistry”, in Columbia Library Columns, volume 40, number 1, page 31:
3. (obsolete, rare, uncountable, usually) A dexterous use or trick of the hand.
   • 1711, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, Volume 2, No. 130, 30 July, 1711, London: J. and R. Tonson, 12th edition, 1739, p. 182, In the Height of his Good-humour, meeting a common Beggar upon the Road who was no Conjuror, as he went to relieve him he found his Pocket was pick’d: That being a Kind of Palmistry at which this Race of Vermin are very dextrous.

Forms

Hypernyms

divination · fortune-telling · fortune-telling · divination

Relateds

palmist · palmister

Synonyms

chirography · palm reading · chirography · chirognomy · sleight of hand · chirognomy · handreading · chiromancy · handreading · chiromancy · palm reading · see: Thesaurus:prestidigitation · legerdemain

Translations (50)

hu tenyérjóslás (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · la chiromantia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm pawmestry (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · cs chiromancie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · fi kädestäennustaminen (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · da håndlæsning (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ru хирома́нтия (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · de Chiromantie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ia chiromantia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · sv kiromanti (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ar قِراءَةُ الْكَفّ (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm cyromancye (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · es quirología (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ga dearnadóireacht (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · cs čtení z ruky (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · fr chiromancie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · da kiromanti (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · es quiromancía (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · nl chiromantie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · de Handlesekunst (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · te హస్తసాముద్రికము (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm chiromanty (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · tl himalad (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm palmestrie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · sv handläsning (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · no håndlesning (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · es quiromancia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ko 손금 (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · it chirognomia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · bg хиромантия (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · cmn 手相 (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · it chiromanzia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm ciromanci (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · sv spådom (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · la chyromantia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · it chiroscopia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · de Handlesen (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · nl handlijnkunde (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · pt quiromancia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm ciromancie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · it chirologia (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · cmn 手相術 /手相术 (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ro chiromanție (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ja 手相 (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ru гада́ние (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm chiromantie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm chyromancie (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ka ქირომანტია (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · enm cyromancy (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand) · ca quiromància (telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand)