hydromancy

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French hydromancie or Late Latin hydromantia, from Ancient Greek ὑδρομαντεία (hudromanteía); corresponding to hydro- +‎ -mancy.

Noun

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hydromancy (usually uncountable, plural hydromancies)

  1. Divination by water or other liquid.
    • 1797, Encyclopædia Britannica, 3rd edition:
      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.
    • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 39:
      Hydromancy was extensively practised by the Egyptian priests and sorcerers[.]
    • 1985, Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi, →ISBN:
      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.

Derived terms

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Translations

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