palmomancy

From Ancient Greek παλμός (palmós, “quivering motion”) + -mancy; compare palmoscopy.

palmomancy (uncountable)

1. Divination of involuntary movements of the body such as tics.
   • 1921, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology:

     The other texts are new or unidentified: an epic fragment relating to Achilles and the ransoming of Hector, some very imperfect iambic trimeters, apparently from a comedy, scholia on an unknown poetical text, two fragments of romances, an astrological fragment, and some fragments of a book of palmomancy, a genre very popular in Egypt, to judge by the specimens now known. To these may be added no. 718, containing medical recipes.

   • 1997, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 54:

     A more specifically divinatory approach to the human body is palmomancy, or divination from twitches and itches in various parts of the body, an ancient and apparently universal method of divination. At the level of Russian popular sayings and beliefs a large number of examples of this lore can be found, some of which are familiar in other languages, including English. The manuscript tradition is still unclear and palmomancy in Russia must be considered more ...

   • 2014, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Forbidden Oracles?: The Gospel of the Lots of Mary, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 52:

     It is a “well-preserved quire of eight papyrus leaves” (PRYL. I 28, 56). The handwriting resembles a biblical uncial. It contains Pseudo-Melampous's treatise on palmomancy, a form of divination that takes its clues from involuntary body movements.

   • 2016, Alan Mugridge, Copying Early Christian Texts: A study of scribal practice, Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 412:

     5546 Papyrus fragment (sheet or roll) (PMich. XVIII 766; Pap. Flor. XXXIX, 3.1), containing a treatise of palmomancy, with no clear Christian influence.