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ornithomancy

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Divination by means of birds; ornithoscopy; augury.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Divination by means of birds, their flight, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Divination by means of birds, their flight, etc.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek

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Examples

  • She lurked by the fire in the heavily perfumed tower room, interrupting Professor Trelawney's increasingly hysterical talks with difficult questions about ornithomancy and heptomology, insisting that she predicted students 'answers before they gave them and demanding that she demonstrate her skill at the crystal ball, the tea leaves and the rune stones in turn.

    Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Rowling, J. K. 2003

  • This chapter in the great volume of superstition was indeed cultivated with unusual solicitude amongst the Pagans -- _ornithomancy_ grew into an elaborate science.

    Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers — Volume 2 Thomas De Quincey 1822

  • This chapter in the great volume of superstition was indeed cultivated with unusual solicitude amongst the Pagans -- _ornithomancy_ grew into an elaborate science.

    Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers Thomas De Quincey 1822

  • Tourism bosses in Worcestershire have compiled a modern guide to romantic ornithomancy.

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • Single girls who want to find out who they'll fall in love with should go birdwatching on Valentine's Day, according to an ancient art called ornithomancy.

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • Other sets of synonyms include, in addition to the aforementioned haruspicy and haruspication: caloptromancy and enoptromancy; spodomancy and tephramancy (or tephromancy); alectryomancy and alectoromancy; astromancy and sideromancy; crystallomancy and gastromancy; hieromancy and hieroscopy; necromancy and sciomancy; ornithomancy and orniscopy; and scapulimancy and omoplatoscopy.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VI No 2 1979

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Comments

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  • vanishedone commented on the word ornithomancy

    An ox or an ass that may happen to pass,

    A voice in the street, or a slave that you meet,

    A name or a word by chance overheard,

    If you deem it an omen, you call it a Bird;

    And if birds are your omens, it clearly will follow

    That birds are a proper prophetic Apollo.

    Chorus of Birds - Aristophenes, translated by John Hookham Frere.

    April 26, 2008