coscinomancy

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English

Alternative forms

Most of these are erroneous and are not in use:

Etymology

Ancient Greek koskinomantis, "a diviner using a sieve", from koskinon, "a sieve".

Noun

coscinomancy (uncountable)

  1. Divination by the use of a suspended sieve sometimes from tongs or shears. The movement of the sieve when a person's name or word is spoken is interpreted.
    • 1603 Christopher Heydon A Defence of Ivdiciall Astrolgie
      And as for Hydromancie, and Choschinomancie, they could vanish as superfluous, as were evident and ridiculous even to the ignorant.
    • 1660 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv.
      By Coscinomancy, most religiously observed of old, amidst the Ceremonies of the ancient Romans. Let us have a Sieve and Shiers, and thou shalt see Devils.
    • 1913 Halliday Greek Div. x.
      To the same species of divinatory rites belong the koskinomancy of Theokritos, familiar in England as the consultation of the sieve and shears, and the minor rites of axinomancy and sphondylomancy.