Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Roman antiquity: A solemn religious dance.
  • noun A kind of divination practised by the augurs from interpretation of the actions of birds when fed, in later times always of domestic chickens, which were kept in coops for the purpose. If the fowls ate greedily, the omen was good; if they refused their food, the prognostic was very bad.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This latter augury was known as tripudium solistimum.

    Bygone Beliefs 1969

  • Their song was chanted in the temple with closed doors, accompanied by that peculiar dance which was termed the tripudium, from its containing three beats.

    Handbook of Universal Literature From the Best and Latest Authorities Anne C. Lynch Botta 1853

  • The "tripudium" has been announced to me, and no omen could be better for the Roman army and people! '

    Bygone Beliefs 1969

  • It is necessary to combine the data provided by paleography with the art of making rhythm, which in religious chant has its own name, the tripudium.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Lu 2009

  • Impudenter so masculorum aspectibus exponunt, insolenter comas jactantes, trahunt tunicas pedibus collidentes, oculoque petulanti, risu effuso, ad tripudium insanientes, omnem adolescentum intemperantiam in se provocantes, inque in templis memoriae martyrum consecratis; pomoerium civitatis officinam fecerunt impudentiae.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • [5145] Trogus had to the full described and set out King Ptolemy's riot as a chief engine and instrument of his overthrow, he adds, tympanum et tripudium, fiddling and dancing: the king was not a spectator only, but a principal actor himself.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • The foot that beat the ground in tripudium, foot I dislove.

    Ulysses 2003

  • So anxious were the troops for battle, that the ` pullarius 'dared to announce to the consul a ` tripudium solistimum,' although the chickens refused to eat.

    Bygone Beliefs 1969

  • Later others were included, and with the army in the field it became the regular practice to take the auspices from the feeding of the sacred chickens (_pulli_): the best sign being obtained if, in their eagerness to feed, they let fall some of the grain from their beaks (_tripudium solistimum_) -- a result not difficult to secure by previous treatment and a careful selection of the kind of grain supplied to them.

    The Religion of Ancient Rome Cyril Bailey 1914

  • With ceremonial dancing (_tripudium_) they moved along the boundary-marks and made the farmer's most complete offering of the pig, sheep, and ox (_suovetaurilia_): the fruits of the last year and the new harvest (_aridae et virides_) played a large part in the ceremonial, and a solemn litany was recited for the aversion of every kind of pest from the crops.

    The Religion of Ancient Rome Cyril Bailey 1914

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