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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2017-04-18 07:44 am

arithmancy

arithmancy (AR-ith-man-see) - n., divination by numbers.


Especially, divination by assigning number values to the letters of a name or word, certain values being considered auspicious or not so good. As done in the Latin alphabet, it's a simplified version of ancient Greek isopsephy or Hebrew/Aramaic gematria. Coined in the 1570s from Greek roots arithmos, number + manteia, divination. The alternative spelling arithmomancy dates from the 1620s.

---L.

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