necromancy

English

Alternative forms

• necyomancy, egromancy

Etymology

Circa 1300, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French nigromancie, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  nigromantia, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin necromantia, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek νεκρομαντεία (nekromanteía), νεκρός (nekrós, “dead”) + μαντεία (manteía, “divination”). Medieval Latin spelling, incorporating niger (black), influenced by the notion of black art. Modern spelling adopted in mid-1500s.

Pronunciation

• enPR: nĕkʹ-rə-măn'-si, IPA^(key): /ˈnɛkɹəˌmænsi/

Noun

necromancy (countable and uncountable, plural necromancies)

1. Divination involving the dead or death.
   • 1597 King James Daemonologie

     And for to make this treatise the more pleasaunt and facill, I have put it in forme of a Dialogue, which I have diuided into three bookes: The first speaking of Magie in general, and Necromancie in special.

   • 1652 Gaule The Magastromancer

     And in one word for all, Nagomancy, or Necromancy; by inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead.

   • 1867 E. Rogers, quoted in K. Thomas Relig. & Decline of Magic

     the Devil did often tempt me to study necromancy and nigromancy and to make use of magic, and to make a league with him...

   • 1920 L. Spence Encyc. Occult

     There is no doubt..that necromancy is the touch-stone of occultism...

2. Loosely, any sorcery or witchcraft, especially involving death or the dead, particularly sorcery involving raising or reanimating the dead.
3. (Internet) Synonym of necroposting

Derived terms

• thread necromancy

Translations

divination involving the dead

• Arabic: نكرومانسيَّة
• Basque: nekromantzia
• Bulgarian: некромантия (nekromantija)
• Catalan: nigromància (ca) f
• Cebuano: nekromansya
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 招魂術／招魂术 (zh), 招魂术 (zh) (zhāohúnshù), 死灵术

• Czech: nekromancie
• Danish: nekromanti c
• Dutch: dodenbezwering f
• Faroese: andamaning f
• Finnish: nekromantia
• French: nécromancie (fr) f
• German: Totenbeschwörung (de) f, Nekromantie f, Totenorakel n
• Greek: νεκρομαντεία (el) f (nekromanteía)
• Hungarian: nekromanta
• Icelandic: andasæring f
• Ido: nekromancio (io)
• Indonesian: nekromansi (id)
• Irish: marbhdhraíocht f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: negromanzia (it) f
• Japanese: ネクロマンシー (nekuromanshī)
• Korean: 강령술 (gangryeongsul) (降靈術)
• Latin: nigromantia, necromantia
• Latvian: nekromantika
• Middle English: nigromancy
• Old French: nygromancie
• Polish: nekromancja (pl)
• Portuguese: necromancia (pt), nigromancia (pt)
• Romanian: necromanția f
• Russian: некрома́нтия (ru) f (nekromántija)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: некромантија f

  Latin: nekromancija f

• Slovak: nekromancia f
• Spanish: nigromancia (es), necromancia (es)
• Swedish: nekromanti (sv)
• Tagalog: nekromansya
• Turkish: nekromansi
• Ukrainian: некрома́нтія f (nekromántija)