Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Divination by means of a shoulder-blade: same as omoplatoscopy.

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

  • noun divination using shoulder bones

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The oddest of all has to be 'scapulimancy': seeing into the future by means of the cracks in shoulder blades.

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

  • Reading bones has so many forms that it comes under many names: scapulimancy, omoplatoscopy, slinneanachd, oracle bones, etc.

    village idiot savant Dominique 2009

  • 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

  • A lot of my work has to do with divination, whether it’s the shaking tent ritual,1  chants, or scapulimancy—which is the practice of reading scapulae or spealbones.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

  • A lot of my work has to do with divination, whether it’s the shaking tent ritual,1  chants, or scapulimancy—which is the practice of reading scapulae or spealbones.

    Brontomancy Timothy Archambault and Raven Chacon 2023

Comments

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  • divination using shoulder blades

    February 26, 2007

  • Heavens.

    Someone ought to consider making a list of "Specific Fortune-Telling" words. How bizarre!

    March 4, 2007

  • They didn't have TV back then. What was a diviner to do on a boring Saturday night?

    March 4, 2007

  • how-to shoulder

    August 24, 2009

  • An oracular fellow named Clancy

    Claimed knowledge of scapulimancy.

    But a blade from a sternum?

    He could not discern 'em,

    So forecasts were generally chancy.

    October 13, 2016