astragalomancy
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English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ἀστράγαλος (astrágalos) + -mancy.
Noun
astragalomancy (uncountable)
- Any form of divination by dice.
- Synonym: dice divination
- Divination by dice made from huckle-bones. They have four flat sides and two round sides which were marked.
- Divination by throwing astragaloi (see etymology above) onto the pages of a picture book.
Quotations
- 1640, E. Chilmead, trans., Love Melancholy, translation of original by Jacques Ferrand:
- "kinde of divination by the opening of a booke at all adventures..." He adds, "I shall omit to speak here of astragalomancy, that was done with huckle bones; ceromancy, and all other such like fooleries."
- 1983, Complete Bk Predictions:
- Astragalomancy: Today this is a form of divination using two dice, but originally a pair of astragals (probably the left and right ankle-bones of a sheep) would have been used.
Synonyms
Translations
divination by dice made from huckle-bones
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throwing such dice onto a book
simply divination by dice
Further reading
astragalomancy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
