1652 Gaule The Magastromancer xix. 166. ..And
in one word for all, Nagomancy, or Necromancy; by
inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead.
1709 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (ed. 2) 374:
There are lines in the Neck, the Forehead, the Lips, the Hams, the
Elbows, and the bottom of the Buttocks..and therefore..as there is
Chiromancy, there ought to be Frontimancy, Collimancy, Pedimancy,
Natimancy.
2. Black magic; sorcery, witchcraft; magic in general, conjuration.
In Dictionaries - 19th Century
In Dictionaries - 20th Century
1597 King James Daemonologie (1924) xii.:
And for to make this treatise the more pleasaunt and facill, I have
put it in forme of a Dialogue, which I have diuided into three bookes:
The first speaking of Magie in general, and Necromancie in
special.
Ibid. 9: And this word Necromancie is a
Greek word, compounded of Nekron & manteia,
which is to say, the Prophecie by the dead. This last name givin, to this
black & vnlawfull science by the figure of Syndoche, because it
is a principle part of that art, to serue them selues with dead carcages
in their diuinations.
1610 Vives in J. Healey Saint Augustine
of the Citie of God 293: For Numa him-selfe, being not instructed
by any Prophet or Angell or God, was faine to fall to (d)
Hydromancie: making his gods (or rather deuills) to appeare in
water, and instruct him in his religious institutions. Which kinde of
diuination saith Varro, came from Persia, and was vsed
by Numa, and afterwards by (b) Pythagoras, wherein
the vsed bloud also, and called forth spirits infernall,
Necromancie the greekes call it, but Necromancie or
Hydromancie, whether ye like, there it is that the dead seem to
speake.
Ibid. 294: Diuination generally was done by diuers
means..by dead bodies, Necromancy...
1618 B. Holyday Technogamia, or the Marriage of
the Arts II. iii. ll. 56-69 (G1v):
Geom. You'l give me all this in writing Sir, woun't you?
Magus. Yes Sir, yes. Then there are divers kinds of your
Magicke, as Necromancie, Anthropomancie, Gastromancie,
Cheiromancie, Coscinomancy....
Geom. I Pray, doe you your self know how many there are
in all?
Magus. Sir, One and twentie. Ile begin them over againe,
if you will. Necromancie, Anthropomancie....
Geom. Nay, good Sir hold, we have had enough alreadie:
But I perceive you Magicians have admirable memories to get
hard words by heart; I marvaile you doe not turn
Dictionary-makers: Why? I warrent there's no hard word
but you can tell the meaning on't: you'd put all their
noses out of ioynt quite.
1624 G. Carleton Aatrologomania: The Madnesse of Astrologers 15: In the narration of Paulus Tertius..the Knight doth not deale fairely, and Knight-like: For hee minceth the Narration, and leaueth out a part of it, which if it had been fully declared, would plainly open, that though the Starres are there pretended; yet that prediction was done by Necromancy, or by Familiarity with a Spirit.
1650 Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica (2nd ed.) 30: ..or that there is any thing but delusion in the practise of *Necromancy and popular conception of Ghosts. [marginal note] *Divination by the dead.
1650 French tr. Paracelsus Nine Books Of the Nature of Things (1674) ix. 300: Necromancy draws forth its signs by the Stars of Death, which we call Evestra, which are prophetical Spirits, signing the Body of the sick and dying man with red, blue and purple spots, which are certain signs of Death in the third day of their rising. They sign also the hands and fingers of men with a clay colour, which are certain signs of change, either good or bad. When therefore the Stars of Necromancy are moved, then the dead shew some wonderful sign, as Bleeding, and voices are heard out of Graves: tumults and tremblings arise in the places where Bones are laid, and dead men appear in the form and habit of living men, and are seen in Visions, in Looking-glasses, in Berils, in Stones and Waters and divers shapes. Evestra, i.e. spirits give their signs by beating, striking, knocking, falling, casting, &c. where there is a great hurly burly and noise only heard, but nothing seen, all which are certain signs of death, presaging it to him, in whose habit they appear, or to some in what place they are heard.
1650 N. Homes Daemonologie and Theologie viii. 51: Sixthly, Necromancie; that is..a Divining by the dead; that is, making (as is pretended) the dead to rise, and declare that which is desired; which we English men call the Black Art.
1651 Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1968) I. xii. 56: ..the same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles, partly upon pretended Experience, partly upon pretended Revelation, have added innumerable other superstitious wayes of Divination; and made men believe they should find their fortunes..Sometimes in the insignificant Speeches of Mad-men, supposed to be possessed with a divine Spirit; which Possession they called Enthusiasme; and these kinds of foretelling events, were accounted Theomancy, or Prophecy: Sometimes in the aspect of the Starres at their Nativity; which was called Horoscopy, and esteemed part of judiciary Astrology: Sometimes in their own hopes and feares, called Thumomancy, or Presage: Sometimes in the Prediction of Witches, that pretended conference with the dead; which is called Necromancy, conjuring, and Witchcraft; and is but juggling and confederate knavery...
1652 Gaule The Magastromancer xix. 166: ..And in one word for all, Nagomancy, or Necromancy; by inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead.
1656 R. Turner tr. Paracelsus Occult Philosophy 29: In this booke we do intend to treat of the greatest and most occult secrets of Philosophy, and of those things which do appertain to Magicke, Nigromancy, Necromancy, Pyromancy, Hydromancy, and Geomancy.
1662 J. Chandler tr. Helmont Oriatrike cxii. 777: What wonder is it, that the astral Spirits of carnal or animal men, should as yet after their funerals, shew themselves as in a bravery, wandering about their buried Treasure, whereunto the whole Necromancy (or art of divination by the calling of the Spirits) of the Antients hath enslaved it self?
1680 P.A tr Count of Gabalis iv. 114: Zoroaster, (said I) why by report was the Author of Necromancy?
1777 Brand Popular Antiquities (1844) iii. 329: [citing Gaule] ..And in one word for all, Nagomancy, or Necromancy; by inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead.
1832 Hone Year Bk 1517/2: Nagomancy, or Necromancy; by inspecting, consulting, and divining by, with, or from the dead. [citing Gaule (via Brand)]
1852 Mackay Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions 250: Necromancy was, next to astrology, the pretended science most resorted to, by those who wished to pry into the future. The earliest instance upon record is that of the witch of Endor and the spirit of Samuel.
1855 Henry Thompson in Smedley et al. Occult Sci. 294: Necromancy and rhabdomancy are..prohibited in Scripture.
1867 E. Rogers, quoted in K. Thomas Relig. & Decline of Magic xvi. 622: ..the Devil did often tempt me to study necromancy and nigromancy and to make use of magic, and to make a league with him...
1868 Chambers's Encyc. VI 694: necromancy..a mode of divination by the conjuring up of the dead to question them concerning the future. It originated is the east, and in times of the most remote antiquity. It is condemned in the Old Testament; and the story of the witch of Endor affords a remarkable illustration of it, which has not a little perplexed interpreters of Scripture. The eleventh book of Homer's Odyssey bears the title Nekromanteia, and in it the shade of Tiresias is represented as brought up and consulted by Ulysses.In most parts of Greece, necromancy was practised by priests or consecrated persons in temples; in Thessaly, it was the profession of a distinct class of persons called Psychagogoi ('Evokers of Spirits'). The practice in that country was ultimately connected with many horrid rites, in which human blood, half-burned portions of bodies from funeral piles, the immature fœtus cut out of the womb, &c., were employed, and sometimes human beings were slain, that their spirits might be consulted ere they were finally passed into the lower world. The establishment of Christianity under Constantine caused necromancy to be placed under the ban of the church. There are evident traces of necromancy in some of the older Norse and Teutonic poems. The medieval belief in the evocation of spirits belongs rather to sorcery than to necromancy.
1871 Tylor Primitive Culture (1891) i. iv. 143: Necromancy is a religion, and the Chinese manes-worshipper may see the outer barbarians come back, after a heretical interval of a few centuries, into sympathy with his time-honoured creed.
1895 A. Lanyard (ed.) John Maundevile Kt. xxii. 290: 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.
1897 B. Stoker Dracula xviii. 212: 'This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command...'
1897 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Works of Rabelais iii. xxv. 163: Or yet by the mystery of necromancy?
1903 Daniels & Stevans Encyc. Occult Sci. (1971) III 1662: necromancy - The commonest of all the magic arts, by which answers to matters relating to this life were obtained from the dead. Closely allied, and belonging to this, was Psychomancy, by which the dead were called up or made to appear in airy forms like shades or ghosts. This was the art, however it may have been practised, of the Witch of Endor.
1913 Halliday Greek Div. xi. 236: ..it is in the
days when black magic comes to the fore in the classical world that
necromancy assumes its most repellent forms and excites the maximum
of horror and interest. It figures repeatedly in the Roman poets, whose
accounts, though influenced by Homer, contain also elements derived
from the practices of the witches and magicians of their day.
Ibid. 237: Cicero's superstitious friend Appius apparently
practised necromancy...
1920 L. Spence Encyc. Occult 286/1: There is no doubt..that necromancy is the touch-stone of occultism...
1931 Lock tr. de Givry Picture Museum of Sorcery (1963) viii. 304: The use of the magic mirror is properly the reverse operation to necromancy. Instead of evoking the dead, mortals who are not yet in being are made to appear in the mirror...
1939 J. Trachtenberg Jewish Magic 223: The Talmud knew two kinds of necromancy, one in which the dead is raised by naming him, the other in which he is questioned by means of a skull. During the Middle Ages these two types were often mentioned, but it is questionable whether they were still employed. The references to them do not carry conviction. Other methods seem to have been more popular, such as the practice of two friends covenanting that the first to die will return to reveal the secrets of the celestial realm to the other.
1959 Robbins Encyc. of Witchcraft and Demonology 139: [citing Gaule] And in one word for all nagomancy or necromancy, by inspecting, consulting and divining by, with, or from the dead.
1969 T. Witton Davies Magic, Divination, & Demonology ii. 78: The words which have to do with necromancy will be dealt with last of all, as they relate to divination by means of consultation with the dead.
1973 Gibson Complete Illust. Bk Div. & Prophecy (1989) 321: NECROMANCY: The raising of the spirits of the dead for divinatory purposes. The biblical account of the Witch of Endor is a good example of its practice in ancient times, and it rose to formidable proportions during the Middle Ages, including all forms of divination along with sorcery and witchcraft under the general head of Black Art. Today, however, the term is applied chiefly in its original sense.
1983 Complete Bk Predictions 68: In the past, necromancy was an unpleasant process that involved reanimating a dead body and forcing it to answer the questions of the living.
1993 McCormack Q&A 71: NECROMANCY - summoning up the dead, summoning the Devil.
1616 Bullokar An English Expositor s.v.
divination: The third and last manner of Diuination, is that which wee
called superstitious, whereof there hath among the Gentiles beene
diuers different kinds, namely Auguration..Necromancy...
Ibid: Necromancie, the worst of all others, is that
diuination, which is practised by conjuration, and calling vp Diuels or
dead mens Ghosts. Which manner of diuination we read practised by
King Saul (i. Reg. cap. 23.) when he required a
Sorceresse to call vp the spirit of Samuell to him.
1626 Cockeram The English Dictionarie (2nd ed.): Necromancy, Diuination by calling vp Deuils, or dead mens ghosts.
1650 French Chymical Dictionary (1674) 338:
Necromancy is an unlawful Art, which did in time of old work
with the dead, as when the stars were manifested with the dead. And he
is truly called a Necromancer, who can make the dead appear, and can
draw words and answers from them.
Ibid. 316:
Cabela..Now after a while superstitious men, a kind of Apes,
began to spatter it [sc. the Qabbala] with their Pen, so that at
last it is degenerated into monstrous superstition; by which means also
Magick, which is the true Wisdom that is received by Divine
Inspiration, is accounted in these times Necromancy, and Nigromancy,
so that it is an offence to be a wise man...
1656 Blount Glossographia s.v. divination: The
third and last manner of Divination is that which we call
Superstitious, whereof there has been among the Gentiles divers
different kinds. As namely..Necromancy, by calling up Devils,
or dead mens Ghosts.
Ibid. Necromancy
(necromantia) a divination practized by conjuration and calling
up Devils or dead mens ghosts; which we read practized by King
Saul (i Reg. cap. 28.) when he required a Sorceress to
call the Spirit of Samuel to him.
1658 Phillips New World of Eng. Words: Necromancy...
1676 Coles An Eng. Dict.: Necromancy, g. Conjuration by raising the dead, or the Devil in their shape, also the black Art generally.
1755 Bailey An Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. (16th
ed.): NECROMANCER [necromancien, F. necromanticus, L.
nekromantikos, G.] a Conjurer, A Magician, or Wizard.
NECROMANCY [necromancie, F. necromantia, L. of
nekromanteia, of nekrs dead, and manteia,
Divination, Gr.] a Divination by calling up dead Mens
Ghosts, or the Devil; also Conjuration in the general.
NECROMANTICK [necromanticus, L. nekromantikos, G.]
of Necromancy.
1755 Johnson Dict. of the Eng. Lang. (1840): Necromancy.. 1. The art of revealing future events, by communication with the dead.
1871 Ogilvie Imperial Dict. ii.: necromancy..The art of revealing future events by means of a pretended communication with the dead. This imposture is prohibited; Deut. xviii.
1882 Worcester Dict. of the Eng. Lang.: necromancy..The art of foretelling events by calling up the dead and questioning them.
1892 New Sydenham Society's Lexicon IV:
1899 Century Dict. (1903) V: necromancy.. Divination by calling up the spirits of the dead and conversing with them; the pretended summoning of apparitions of the dead in order that they may answer questions.
1909 Encyc. Dict. (Cassell's) V:
1912 Webs. New Int. Dict.: necromancy [main words list]
c1920 Cassell's New Eng. Dict.:
1930 Winston Simplified Dict. s.v.: ..the pretended art of predicting future events by communication with the dead.
1932 Wyld Universal Dict.:.
1955 Shipley Dict. Early Eng. (1963) 16: necromancy, (Greek nekros, corpse; Latin nigrem, black), communicating with the dead; sciomancy, shadows, or the shades of the dead. necromancy is also the general term for illicit divination, black magic; also nygromauncy, negromancy, nycromancy, necromancy [sic], necromonseys.
1961 Webs. Third New Int. Dict.: necromancy
1981 Macquarie Dict. (1st ed.): necromancy..2. the pretended art of divination through communication with the dead; the black art.
1984 Macquarie Thes. § 268.6: necromancy (the dead)
1986 Urdang (ed.) -Ologies & -Isms (3rd ed.) 211: necromancy 1. the magic practiced by a witch or sorcerer. 2. a form of divination through communication with the dead. Also called nigromancy. - necromancer, necromant, nigromancien, n. - necromantic. adj.
1987 Random House Dict.
1988 Chambers Eng. Dict.
A blend of necromancy, pyromancy, geomancy, hydromancy, cheiromancy and coscinomancy. Note that puro- = pyro-.
1615 Tomas Tomkis Albumazar ii. 3:
'Now then, declining from Theourgia, Artenosoria Pharmacia rejecting,
Necro-puro-geo-hydro-cheiro-coscinomancy,
With other vain and superstitious sciences,'...
Not in OED. Not in other dicts.
1908 Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dict. ii. nectromantia..1. The same as necromancy. 2. The art of perceiving the inner or secret nature of things; psychometry, so called. [Improp. NL., < L. necromantia necromancy]
1953 Gaynor (ed.) Dict. Mysticism (1974) 122:
Nectromancy: The perception of the inner essence of things.
Etymologically, and in ancient Greek (according to Liddle & Scott)
these two words are synonymous. Litterally they both mean 'divination
through calling up the dead'. Both nekys and nekro mean 'a
dead body'.
The definitions in Shipley and Byrne derive from the mistake
of reading 'devil' to mean '(the) Devil', instead of its earlier
meaning of, simply, 'spirit of a dead person, ghost'.
In Cockeram in the second part of his book, a backwards dictionary, he defines both 'Diuination by calling vp damned spirits' and 'D. by calling vp deuills and ghostes' separately as 'Necromancy'. And 'necyomancy' appears not in this section.
[1632 Cotgrave Dictionarie of French & Eng. Tongues: Necyomantie: f. Diuination by conference with dead bodies raised.]
1656 Blount Glossographia s.v. divination: The
third and last manner of Divination is that which we call
Superstitious, whereof there has been among the Gentiles divers
different kinds. As namely..Necyomancy, by conference with
dead bodies raised, &c. All which being by the pagans
themselves accounted deceitful and vain, it remains that of Christians
they be utterly rejected and abhorred.
Ibid.: Necyomancie, the same with Necromancy.
1892 New Sydenham Society's Lexicon IV:
1901 A.W. Ward Marlowe's Faustus 128: As to the necyomancy of the ancients, see Maury, La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquité et au Moyen Age, 59-60.
1906 OED. [citing 1623 Cockeram, then Blount. Labels Obs. rare-&sup0;]
1953 Gaynor (ed.) Dict. Mysticism (1974) 122: Necyomancy: Foretelling the future by examining the nerves of the dead.
1955 Shipley Dict. Early Eng. (1963) 16: necyomancy, necyomanty, calling up the devil or other damned spirits.
1974 Mrs. Byrne's Dict.:
necyomancy..fortunetelling by summoning Lucifer.
c.1910 Americana s.v. divination: There are many names for the different modes of prognosticating the future... The following by no means exhaust the list..nephelomancy, by clouds...
1953 Gaynor (ed.) Dict. Mysticism (1974) 123: Nephelomancy: Foretelling the future by using the clouds as divinatory signs.
1973 Collier's Encyc. x. 211/1: Nephelomancy...clouds.
1973 Gibson Complete Illust. Bk Div. & Prophecy (1989) 321: NEPHELOMANCY: A study of the clouds and their various formations, as a means of divining future events.
1985 N. Drury Dict. Mysticism & Occult 192/1:
Nephelomancy. Divination by interpreting the formation and direction
of clouds.
From the ancient Greek nephros a kidney.
1955 Shipley Dict. Early Eng. (1963) 16:
nephromancy, the kidneys.
1986 P. Hellweg Insomniac's Dict. x. 75:
Nephromancy - The kidneys.
c1400 (a1376) Piers the Plowman A(1) (Trin-C) 11.161 (MED): Experimentis of alkenemye of albertis makyng, Nigromancie & permansie [vrr. perimansie, pernirancy] pe pouke to reisen.
?a1425 Mandev. (Eg) 115/9 (MED): At a syde of þe emperour table sittez many philosophers and grete clerkez of diuerse sciencez, sum of astronomy, sum of nigromancy, sum of geomancy, sum of pyromancy, sum of ydromancy.
a1475 Ludus C 178/19 (MED):
Of calculacion and negremauncye,
Also of Augrym and of asmatryk,
O lynyacion Þat longyth to jematrye..
In all þis scyens is non us lyke.
c1500 (?a1475) John Lydgate
Assembly of the Gods ll. 862--70:
These folowyd Konnyng & thedyr with hym came,
With many ooñ moo offryng her seruyce
To Vertew at hat nede; but natwithstandyng than
Some he refusyd and seyde in nowyse
They shuld with hym go, and, as I coude auyse,
These were her names: fyrst, Nygromansy,
Geomansy, Magyk, and Glotony,
Adryomancy, Ornomancy, with Pyromancy,
Fysenamy also, and Pawmestry,
And all her sequelys, yef I shult nat ly.
1594 Greene Frier Bacon & Frier Bongay ii.:
Bacon. And therefore will I turne my Magicke bookes,
And straine out Nigromancie to the deepe,
I haue contrivd and framde a head of brasse...
1620 J. Melton Astrologaster 70: But if by Incantations the Deuill seems to rise and answer to Questions propounded to them, then it is called Negramancie.
1656 R. Turner tr. Paracelsus Occult Philosophy
29: In this booke we do intend to treat of the greatest and most occult
secrets of Philosophy, and of those things which do appertain to
Magicke, Nigromancy, Necromancy, Pyromancy, Hydromancy, and
Geomancy.
Ibid. 50: These kinde of visions are certain and
true; to which more faith is to be given, then to all the precepts in
Nigromancy by looking-Glasses, Christals, Beryls, nailes of the fingers,
stones, waters, and the like; for all these are false and fallacious...
a1660 (1693) Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv. 135: Or for the more certainty, will you have trial of your Fortune by the Art of Aruspiciny? by Augury? or by Extispicine? By Turdispicine, quoth Panurge; or yet by the Mystery of Negromancy? I will, if you please, suddenly set up again, and revive some one lately deceased, as Apollonius of Tyan did to Achilles, and the Pythoniss in the Presence of Saul; which Body so raised up, and requickened, will tell us the Sum of all you shall require of him; no more or less than at the Invocation of Erictho, a certain defunct Person, foretold to Pompey the whole Progress and Issue of the fatal Battle fought in the Pharsalian Fields? Or if you be afraid of the Dead, as commonly all Cuckolds are, I will make use of the Faculty of Sciomancy.
1867 E. Rogers, quoted in K. Thomas Relig. & Decline of Magic xvi. 622: ..the Devil did often tempt me to study necromancy and nigromancy and to make use of magic, and to make a league with him...
1913 Halliday Greek Div. xi. 236: In the Middle Ages nigromancy or negromancy came to be little more than a synonym for the Black Art, a result due in part to mistaken etymology, but in great measure to the late classical belief in the effectiveness of repellent rites of divination said to be practised by the professors of witchcraft.
1985 N. Drury Dict. Mysticism & Occult
1650 French Chymical Dictionary (1674) 338: Nigromancy is a wicked and execrable Art, whereby Devils and wicked Spirits suffer themselves to be commanded by man and obey them, but only to their hurt.
1656 Blount Glossographia: Nigromancy. See Necromancy.
1676 Coles An Eng. Dict.: Nigromancy, as Necro-
1892 New Sydenham Society's Lexicon IV:
1907 OED.
1908 Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dict. ii.: nigromancie..necromancy. [marked obsolete]
1912 Webs. New Int. Dict.: nigromancy [minor words list; various forms given]
1955 Shipley Dict. Early Eng. (1963): See necromancy.
1986 Urdang (ed.) -Ologies & -Isms (3rd ed.)
211: necromancy 1. the magic practiced by a witch or
sorcerer. 2. a form of divination through communication with the dead.
Also called nigromancy. - necromancer, necromant,
nigromancien, n. - necromantic. adj.
From the French nomancie, aphetic variant of onomancie, onomancy, influenced by French nom a name.
An early variant form was nomency.
1866 in OED.
1740 Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict.: nomancy (s.) a pretended divination or foretune-telling, by the disposition of letters that form a person's name.
1755 Johnson Dict. of the Eng. Lang. (1840): Nomancy. n.s. [nomance, nomancie, Fr. nomen, Lat. and manteia, Gr.] The art of divining the fates of persons by the letters that form their names. Dict.
1852 Roget Thes. § 511: ..by the letters forming the name of a person, Onomancy, Nomancy...
1871 Ogilvie Imperial Dict. ii.: nomancy..The art or practice of divining the destiny of persons by the letters which form their names.
1882 Worcester Dict. of the Eng. Lang.: nomancy..Divination by the letters of a name; onomancy. [r.] Johnson.
1899 Century Dict. (1903) V: nomancy.. The art or practice of divining the destiny of persons by the letters which form their names. Johnson. [marked obsolete]
1902 OED.
1908 Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dict. ii.: nomancy..Folk-lore. Divination by means of the letters of one's name.
1909 Encyc. Dict. (Cassell's) V:
1912 Webs. New Int. Dict.: nomancy [minor words list]
1961 Webs. Third New Int. Dict.: nomancy
1974 Mrs. Byrne's Dict.: nomancy..fortunetelling by letters.
1986 P. Hellweg Insomniac's Dict. x.
1986 Urdang (ed.) -Ologies & -Isms (3rd ed.)
211: nomancy a form of divination involving the examination
of letters, possibly from a graphological point of view. Cf.
onomancy.
1983 Complete Bk Predictions 117: Numerology,
which was also known as numeromancy or arithomancy, used to be
practiced as a form of general divination; today its practitioners are
mainly concerned with character analysis and potential.