Etymology

alphitomancy

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Today it means: An Ancient Greek method of divination using barley meal, used for instance to reveal guilty parties; it entailed feeding a person or group barley meal, and judging those who felt no effects to be innocent, while judging those who felt indigestion to be guilty. Full definition →

Ancient Greek ἀλφῐτόμαντις
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromἀλφῐτόμαντις“diviner who used barley meal”
  2. English todayalphitomancy

From Ancient Greek ἀλφῐτόμαντις (alphĭtómantis, “diviner who used barley meal”), from ἄλφῐτον (álphĭton, “barley meal”) and μαντεία (manteía, “prophecy”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.