omphalomancy
Jul. 14th, 2010 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordomphalomancy (oom-fah-loh-MAN-see) - n., divination of how many children a mother will have by either the number of knots in her firstborn infant's umbilical chord or the shape of its navel.
Dictionaries and glossaries seem equally split over the method. Most but not all of the navel-shape citations look to be traceable to the 1913 Webester's. From Greek roots omphalós, navel or hub + -mancy. And because I'm feeling guilty about this one, have a bonus divination:
oryctomancy (or-ik-toh-MAN-see) - n., divination by studying excavated objects.
Yes, really. Oryctology is an old name for both paleontology and mineralogy, from a Greek root for "to dig."
---L.
Dictionaries and glossaries seem equally split over the method. Most but not all of the navel-shape citations look to be traceable to the 1913 Webester's. From Greek roots omphalós, navel or hub + -mancy. And because I'm feeling guilty about this one, have a bonus divination:
oryctomancy (or-ik-toh-MAN-see) - n., divination by studying excavated objects.
Yes, really. Oryctology is an old name for both paleontology and mineralogy, from a Greek root for "to dig."
---L.
