coscinomancy

alternative choschinomancy · alternative choschinomancie · alternative coskinomancy · alternative koskinomancy · alternative cosinomancy · alternative coskiomancy · alternative cosnomancy · alternative coskniomancy · alternative coseinomancy

1. uncountableDivination by the use of a suspended sieve sometimes from tongs or shears. The movement of the sieve when a person's name or word is spoken is interpreted.

   1603 Christopher Heydon A Defence of Ivdiciall Astrolgie And as for Hydromancie, and Choschinomancie, they could vanish as superfluous, as were evident and ridiculous even to the ignorant.

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   1660 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv. By Coscinomancy, most religiously observed of old, amidst the Ceremonies of the ancient Romans. Let us have a Sieve and Shiers, and thou shalt see Devils.

   1913 Halliday Greek Div. x. To the same species of divinatory rites [i.e. those involving a swinging pendulum] belong the koskinomancy of Theokritos, familiar in England as the consultation of the sieve and shears, and the minor rites of axinomancy and sphondylomancy.