haruspicy

== English == === Alternative forms === aruspicy === Etymology === From Latin haruspicium, from haruspex (“diviner of entrails”) + -ium (forming abstract nouns). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /həˈɹʌspɪsi/ === Noun === haruspicy (countable and uncountable, plural haruspicies) Divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice. 1825, Horace Smith, Gaieties and Gravities: A Series of Essays, Comic Tales, and Fugitive Vagaries, Volume II, H. Colburn, page 333: That our fates should be made dependent upon the stars, planets, and constellations, however preposterous a conceit, at least imparts a dignity to our nature by conjoining earth with Heaven: but that the doom of kings, empires, and individuals, should be regulated […] by the entrails of victims, as analysed by the butchers of Haruspicy […] is an evidence of stupid credulity that levels civilised man to the savage […] ==== Synonyms ==== extispicy ==== Hyponyms ==== hepatomancy, hepatoscopy (haruspicy using livers) ==== Coordinate terms ==== haruspex (a practicer of haruspicy) ==== Translations ====