Friday, March 15, 2013

Aleuromancy

Meaning: divination by baked goods with some kind of prophecy or philosophy implanted; fortune cookies are an obvious example.

Usefulness: 1 (Fancy words for common things are always useful.)

Logofascination: 2 (The spelling is an issue; Sir Thomas has alentomancy - which I think sounds nicer - probably influenced by Cotgrave's alebromantie which is in turn probably a mis-reading or -hearing of alevromantie. The OED assures me that it's aleuromancy, from the Greek for flour, and cites a corrected passage.)

In the wild: It's the internet: someone performs divination via photos of flour on tumblr*. Perhaps I should ask them to divine how you will subscribe to this blog after Google Reader dies (along with what little affection I had left for Google). Heck, I should ask how I'm going to read any of the 43 obscure things I subscribe to.

Degrees: 1

Connections: n/a

Which is used in: G&P, the much-less-fascinating-than-it-used-to-be -mancy chapter XXV of Book the Third, The One Where Panurge Visits Herr Trippa And Gets Insulted. This is another of the -mancys where Rabelais provides some detail:
By alentomancy, mixing the flour of wheat with oatmeal.

*I'd give you a link, but I don't want to encourage them.

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