extispex

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English

Etymology

From Latin extispex.

Noun

extispex (plural extispices)

  1. (historical) Somebody who predicts the future using entrails
    • 1836, Thomas Swinburne Carr, A manual of Roman antiquities, page 30:
      The Aruspices, or rather Haruspices, were those priests whose chief business it was to inspect the entrails of beasts offered in sacrifice; and hence they were sometimes called extispices.
    • 1854, Christian Charles Josias Bunsen, Outlines of the Philosophy of Universal History: Christianity and Mankind, Their Beginnings and Prospects:
      As the same person might be both extispex and fulgurator, it is not astonishing to find them both called haruspices.
    • 2008, Eftychia Stavrianopoulou, Axel Michaels, Claus Ambos, Transformations in Sacrificial Practices, →ISBN:
      A further function of sacrificial integration illustrates another significance of the extispex for the confirmation of the political hierarchy and, above all, of the Roman emperor and his communication with the gods.
    • 2013, Budge, Amulets & Magic, →ISBN, page 452:
      The Sun-god was believed to have arranged the entrails of the sacrificial lamb in such a way that they would indicate to men the will of the gods, and, moreover, that he set marks upon them which could not be mistaken by the skilled extispex.

Translations

Latin

Etymology

exta (“entrails”) +‎ *spex, the same element as auspex and haruspex.

Pronunciation

Noun

extispex m (genitive extispicis); third declension

  1. a diviner who reads prophesies from the entrails of animals; a soothsayer
    Synonyms: hariolus, haruspex

Declension

Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative extispex extispicēs
genitive extispicis extispicium
extispicum
dative extispicī extispicibus
accusative extispicem extispicēs
ablative extispice extispicibus
vocative extispex extispicēs

Derived terms

References

  • “extispex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “extispex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
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