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Permanent link for this word: haruspicy

Aug 11, 2006

This week's theme
Words related to forecasting and divination

This week's words
arithmancy
bibliomancy
necromancy
clairvoyance
haruspicy

This week’s comments
AWADmail 222

Next week’s theme
A medley of words

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

haruspicy

(hur-RUS-puh-see)

noun: Divination by inspecting the entrails of sacrificed animals.

From Latin haruspicium, from haruspex, from hira (entrails) + specere (to look at).

A priest in ancient Rome who performed haruspicy was called a haruspex. The liver was the popular organ of choice in haruspicy.

"Figuring out where the economy is headed often seems like a modern version of haruspicy."
The Diviners Say: Let It Fall; Los Angeles Times; Aug 20, 2001.

X-Bonus

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself. -Archibald MacLeish, poet and librarian (1892-1982)

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