medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Shinners <[log in to unmask]>
>....divination by fingernail (onychomancy).
the OED entry for this cites interesting instances of use, from 1652 to the
WSJ in 2000:
onychomancy, n.
Forms: 16 18– onychomancy, 17–18 onycomancy.
Etymology: Either < post-classical Latin onychomantia (1544 in G. Cardano
Sapientia) or < its elements ancient Greek ὄνυχο- onycho- comb. form +
Hellenistic Greek -μαντεία -mancy comb. form. Compare Spanish
onicomancia (1545). Compare earlier onymancy n.(Show Less)
rare before 20th cent.
Divination from the fingernails.
1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 165 Onychomancy, [divining] by the
nayles.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl., Onycomancy, or as some have it, Onymancy, a kind
of Divination by means of the Nails of the Fingers.
1855 E. Smedley Occult Sci. 324 Chiromancers give the name of Onycomancy,
likewise, to the inspection of the natural signs in the nails.
1903 F. W. H. Myers Human Personality & its Survival of Bodily Death 574
The Greeks‥[practised] onychomancy, in which a boy's nails covered with soot
and oil were turned to the sun, the reflection of whose rays produced images
supposed to represent certain things.
1934 J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman I. xv. 410 We
wonder that a credulous age has not made more of onychomancy or
nail-divination!
1986 M. Stott Spilling Beans 110 Other well known forms of divination
include Tarot and I Ching but more obscure forms are practised, too. These
include‥onychomancy.
2000 Wall St. Jrnl. 1 Jan. 5/1 People have been making predictions about
the year 2000 for centuries. They have employed‥such techniques as
splanchomancy (reading entrails); onychomancy (interpreting fingernails);
[etc.].
c
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