botanomancy
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
botanomancy (uncountable)
- Divination by plants. A form of pyromancy in which tree branches and/or leaves are burnt.
- Tea-leaf reading, or tasseomancy.
Quotations
- "Diuination generally was done by diuers means...or by Hearbes, Botinomancy, the witches magicke." -- Vives in J. Healey Saint Augustine of the Citie of God, 1610
- "By Botomancy, for the nonce I have a few Leaves in reserve." -- Urquhart translating Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv., 1660
- "A method of divination by means of burning the branches of vervein and briar, upon which were carved the questions of the practitioner." -- L. Spence Encyc. Occult, 1920