alphitomancy
nounEtymology
From Ancient Greek ἀλφῐτόμαντις (alphĭtómantis, “diviner who used barley meal”), from ἄλφῐτον (álphĭton, “barley meal”) and μαντεία (manteía, “prophecy”).
- learned borrowing from ἀλφῐτόμαντις
Definitions
An Ancient Greek method of divination using barley meal, used for instance to reveal…
An Ancient Greek method of divination using barley meal, used for instance to reveal guilty parties; it entailed feeding a person or group barley meal, and judging those who felt no effects to be innocent, while judging those who felt indigestion to be guilty.
- Aleuromancy and alphitomancy were almost analogous processes; cakes were made of wheat or barley flour which could not be swallowed by anyone guilty of a given misdeed.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for alphitomancy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA