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 white rooster or cockerel) 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

  • 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.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VI No 2 1979

Comments

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  • Magic using corn.

    November 5, 2008

  • a cock and bull story?

    September 12, 2012

  • 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