| Wiktionary |
[Noun] the study and divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice. 1807, Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, Volume 1, Whitehall, page 238, Different kinds of divination, which have passed for sciences, we have had: � Haruspicy, by inspecting the bowels of animals. � 1825, Horace Smith, Gaieties and Gravities: A Series of Essays, Comic Tales, and Fugitive Vagaries, Volume II, H. Colburn, page 333, That our fates should be made dependent upon the stars, planets, and constellations, however preposterous a conceit, at least imparts a dignity to our nature by conjoining Heaven with earth: but that the doom of kings, empires, and individuals, should be regulated � by the entrails of victims, as analysed by the butchers of Haruspicy � is an evidence of stupid credulity that levels civilised man to the savage �. (references) |
