Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An ancient practice of foretelling events by means of a cock.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Divination by means of a cock and grains of corn placed on the letters of the alphabet, the letters being put together in the order in which the grains were eaten.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A form of
divination in which the diviner observes a bird, several birds (or most preferably the whiterooster orcockerel ) pecking at grain that the diviner has scattered on the ground.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Ancient Greek ἀλεκτρυών, ἀλέκτωρ (alektōr, "a rooster") + -mancy.
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Examples
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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.
tricon commented on the word alectryomancy
Magic using corn.
November 5, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word alectryomancy
a cock and bull story?
September 12, 2012
qms commented on the word alectryomancy
A rooster survives by being the one
They credit with raising the sun.
He tickles the fancy
With alectryomancy
And chuckles til daylight is done.
August 9, 2014