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Today's Word "Rhabdomancy"
"I doubt, however, if he would find the children of Yankees more passive under his rhabdomancy than those of us Britishers." -- William Howitt, 'Woodburn Grange'
From Greek rhabdomanteia based on rhabdos "rod" + manteia "divination." The Proto-Indo-European root is werb- or werbh- "to turn, bend" that also developed into "warp" and "wrap." Other variants of this stem underlie "rhapsody" from Greek rhapsoidia based on rhapsis "stitching together" (from rhaptein "to sew") + oide "song, ode" + ia, a noun suffix. The suffix -mancy comes from Late Latin -mantia inherited from Greek manteia "divination." This relates today's word with an earlier Word of the Day, gastromancy "divination by means of stomach rumblings." They can cause a bit of wiggling, too.
This news arrived on: 09/20/2005
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