augurism

From augur +‎ -ism.

augurism (countable and uncountable, plural augurisms)

1. The act of foretelling; prophecy.
   • 1590, Thomas Lodge, Rosalynde or, Euphues' Golden Legacy:

     I have heard them say, that what the fates fore point, that fortune pricketh down with a period; that the stars are sticklers in Venus' court, and desire hangs at the heel of destiny: if it be so, then by all probable conjectures, this match will be a marriage: for if augurism be authentical, or the divines' dooms principles, it cannot be but such a shadow portends the issue of a substance, for to that end did the gods force the conceit of the eclogue, that they might discover the ensuing consent of your affections: so that ere it be long, I hope, in earnest, to dance at your wedding.

   • 1607, Edward Topsell, The history of four-footed beasts, taken principally from the Historiae animalium on Conrad Gesner, page 68:

     Then did the Priest or Flamen divide the intrails, that so he might make his augurism (the bowels being proved at the Altar.) Having looked into the bowels, they took out of every gut, member and part, a first fruits, moulded them together in the meal of green wheat-corn, then was it given to the Priest, who put thereunto frankincense, herbmary, and faire, and so burned them all together, which was called a perfect Hoast.

   • 1992, The Camden Miscellany - Volume 31, page 261:

     Therefore they are not called thither to be ciphers in augurism, or tell clocks.

   • 2006, Calyx - Volume 23, page 43:

     But at this point in political time I want augurism through a paintbrush; I want suggestions , not certainties.

• Murguias