Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Divination by the observation of water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Divination by some use or from some phenomenon of water.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Divination by means of water, -- practiced by the ancients.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Divination by water or other liquid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun divination by water (as by patterns seen in the ebb and flow of the tides)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ydromancy, from Old French ydromancie, from Latin hydromantīa, from Greek hudromanteia : hudro-, hydro- + -manteia, -mancy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French hydromancie or Late Latin hydromantia, from Ancient Greek *ὑδρομαντεία (hydromanteia); corresponding to hydro- + -mancy.

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Examples

  • Have you a mind, quoth Herr Trippa, to have the truth of the matter yet more fully and amply disclosed unto you by pyromancy, by aeromancy, whereof Aristophanes in his Clouds maketh great estimation, by hydromancy, by lecanomancy, of old in prime request amongst the Assyrians, and thoroughly tried by Hermolaus

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • Have you a mind, quoth Herr Trippa, to have the truth of the matter yet more fully and amply disclosed unto you by pyromancy, by aeromancy, whereof Aristophanes in his Clouds maketh great estimation, by hydromancy, by lecanomancy, of old in prime request amongst the Assyrians, and thoroughly tried by Hermolaus

    Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel 2002

  • If these signs appear in some earthly body such as wood, iron or polished stone, it is called "geomancy," if in water "hydromancy," if in the air "aeromancy," if in fire

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • Others include 'geomancy' (seeing into the future by throwing earth on the ground and interpreting the resulting lines and shapes); 'hydromancy' (studying the patterns and movement of water); and 'pyromancy' (studying the shapes and patterns of flames and fires).

    Femalefirst.co.uk - Celebrity Gossip + Lifestyle Magazine 2010

  • Have you a mind, quoth Herr Trippa, to have the truth of the matter yet more fully and amply disclosed unto you by pyromancy, by aeromancy, whereof Aristophanes in his Clouds maketh great estimation, by hydromancy, by lecanomancy, of old in prime request amongst the Assyrians, and thoroughly tried by

    Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 3 Fran��ois Rabelais 1518

  • And at one side of the emperor’s table sit many philosophers that be proved for wise men in many diverse sciences, as of astronomy, necromancy, geomancy, pyromancy, hydromancy, of augury and of many other sciences.

    The Travels of Sir John Mandeville 2004

  • A like use of the suspended ring, indicating the early acquaintance of practitioners in these arts with one of the alleged evidences of the so-called _odylic_ force, is thus described by Peucer among various modes of hydromancy: "A bowl was filled with water, and a ring suspended from the finger was librated in the water; and so, according as the question was propounded, a declaration or confirmation of its truth, or otherwise, was obtained.

    The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II Various

  • So one wrote: '_There is neither crystallomancy nor hydromancy, but the magick is in the Seer himself. _'"

    The Thing from the Lake 1903

  • Sabellicus, a second Faustus, the spring and centre of necromantic art, an astrologer, a magician, consummate in chiromancy, and in agromancy, pyromancy and hydromancy inferior to none that ever lived. "

    Lives of the Necromancers William Godwin 1796

Comments

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  • Magic using water.

    November 5, 2008